Tales of a Half Fishman Pirate
by JazzyPirate
Summary: Iris is a half fishman/half human from Orange Town who met Luffy, Zoro, and Nami when they all defeated the Buggy Pirates. She is asked by Luffy to join his crew and accepts his offer as a way to get off the island to achieve her goal.
1. Chapter 1

The chaotic atmosphere in Orange Town that had appeared with the arrival of the Buggy Pirates had scattered the townspeople and forced them to the areas surrounding the town. They were all afraid of the dangerous pirates and were trying to keep their distance. The shops in the town had shut down and the homes had been evacuated. If one were to walk around the town it would feel like a ghost town other than the shouts of the pirates that had set themselves up at a small pub on the far end of the town and the occasional cannon bursting through the sky as the pirates celebrated something or another.

There was, however, one lone shop still open for business. It was a small bar with a single girl working there. The villagers had tried to convince the girl to evacuate with them until the pirates had, left but she adamantly refused. She wasn't particularly afraid of the pirates and wasn't going to give into them.

The girl operating the bar was a 21-year-old woman named Iris. She was half fishman and half human, though it wasn't apparent she was part fishman by looking at her. She had a slight webbing between her fingers and toes, her teeth were sharper than a normal human's teeth, and the gills on her neck that were used to be able to breath under water were only visible when she was in water and using them. Her skin tone, build, facial features, and hair made her look like a normal human. She stood about 5'7" and had light lavender, almost white, waist length hair that was pulled back into a pony tail. She had deep emerald eyes and a caramel colored complexion. On this particular day she was wearing a tight fitting plain white tank top that revealed just a little cleavage, black cropped pants, black mary janes that were thin and flexible, and black fingerless gloves that hid the webbing between her fingers. She also had a fairly large tattoo of a tiger shark in navy blue swimming up her right arm in. She was a pretty girl who didn't like to call attention to herself and dressed in a way to blend in. While she knew most people would not look at her and see that she was a fishman, she knew from her dad that fishman faced horrible discrimination and that it was better that she not call attention to herself.

"Hey girl! Give us some booze!" a strange looking pirate yelled at her as he burst through the front door. She ignored him and continued to wipe down the bar. There had been plenty of pirates that had come through the town but never any that looked as strange as this group of pirates. They all looked like circus clowns and she had heard that their captain even had a big red nose. Iris wasn't sure how anybody was able to take this group of idiots seriously.

"It's not good to ignore people that are talking to you, girl," the pirate shouted as he walked into the bar and headed straight towards the bar. Iris looked up and rolled her eyes at the man. "It's not good to make demands in somebody else's bar either, but here you are doing just that," she stated. The man did not like her words and immediately became angry. When he tried to rush her she was easily able to subdue him. She jumped over the bar and grabbed onto his wrist when he swung at her, and threw him onto the ground. She jumped on top of him and pinned his hands above his head with one of her hands and placed the other hand over his throat. "You need to leave this bar right now," she said putting just enough pressure on his throat to start cutting off his airways. "I'm not afraid of any of you, and as you can now see I can take deal with you idiots just fine," she growled at the shocked pirate.

She got off of him and stood up with her arms crossed over her chest and watched as the man scurried to his feet and ran out of the bar. She had been trained in different forms of martial arts by her father and she knew how to protect herself. Her father had been a pirate and was a fishman. He was part of a crew that had no problem with him being a fishman, but most of the world did have a problem with it. From the day Iris was old enough to walk he had started training her on how to defend herself from others when he was in town. Her mother was a normal human from Orange Town. Iris' father was always glad that she took after her human mother and not him. Her mother had passed away when Iris was very young from some illness or another; Iris didn't know and didn't really care as she didn't remember the woman.

Iris only knew a few things about her mother as her father didn't like talking about her mother. They met when her mother was working at a small cafe and her father's pirate crew came through the village to restock on supplies. She had heard that her mother couldn't keep her eyes off of him. He had been annoyed by the woman staring at him and called her out on it, but was surprised when the woman's answer was that she found him incredibly interesting and that she had no idea what a fishman even was. He was used to ridicule and people staring at him out of disgust, not interest. Iris didn't know the whole story of how her parents got together, but she knew that her father would come back to Orange Town any chance he got to visit her mother and eventually Iris was born. Iris knew her father had loved her mother deeply and it made him sad to bring her up, and so Iris just didn't bring her up. The information she did have about her mother generally came from the other townspeople.

After Iris' mother passed away, her father left his pirating ways and decided to live in the village and raise her. He opened the bar to provide for them and led a fairly normal life on the island, well as normal as a fishman could live. The villagers didn't seem to discriminate against him, but travelers and pirates that came through would be terrible to him when they entered the bar. Her father was a very strong man though, and was typically left alone by these awful people aside from the occasional drunk person or snide comment. Her father was a tiger shark fishman and was tall and strong. Iris had always thought her father to be a very handsome man, but she found out at a very young age that most others didn't agree with her. His deep blue skin tone, the large dorsal fin that stuck out of his back, and tall stature all made him stick out even though his facial features looked mostly human enough, and a most don't seem to like others that look so different from themselves. It made Iris immensely angry, but if it made her father angry he hid it well from her.

Iris was very protective of her father and had absolutely adored him. She would get into fights growing up when she would hear people put him down, and he would always scold her for doing so. He didn't particularly care what others had to say about him as long as she was safe and sound. He always made sure that she was provided for and was well. In her eyes he was the absolutely best father anybody could ask for. She learned to fight and defend herself, she learned to make the best drinks at the bar, to not judge people on their looks, and to have a thick skin when people put her down from him. The one thing he hadn't taught her was how to live without him.

Her world came crashing down when the navy showed up in Orange Town a few days after her 17th birthday. She had heard that her father had a bounty on his head from his pirating days, but he had given that up 14 years prior to raise her. The navy showed up while she was still sleeping and took her father away before she was able to even say goodbye. According the villagers he went quietly so that she wouldn't wake up; he didn't want the navy to realize that he had a daughter. Even though she had never been out to sea and her mother had been a regular citizen, the navy wasn't always kind to family members of pirates. When she woke up that day to find that her father was gone she went on an awful rampage through the town. She fought anybody that tried to talk to her, and tore up her house in despair.

Iris spent the next year mostly in solitude and rarely came out of her house. She was in a horrible state of depression without her father there, and even with the villagers trying to cheer her up and help her in any way they could she felt completely alone. One day the chief of the village came to visit her and asked her what she would like to be done with her father's bar; it was sitting there gathering dust and could be used by somebody else in the village if she wasn't going to reopen it. The mere suggestion that somebody else use her father's bar angered Iris, and so she decided to reopen it. It took awhile to clean the place up and get it stocked to reopen, but she did it. When she was working behind the bar and making drinks for people it was as if she could feel her father's presence again. She had spent a good chunk of her life in that bar watching her father make drinks for people and everything in that bar reminded her of him.

Slowly she started to come out of her depression. She never gave up her hate for the navy and one day she knew that she would go against the navy herself to find her father again. But until that day she would work at the bar saving up money and waiting for her opportunity. She practiced the martial arts that her father had taught her every day and frequently got to use her skills on unruly customers that would try to cause a scene in her bar.

So the Buggy Pirates being in the village was no big deal to her. She would defend herself and her bar from any group of pirates that came through the town. She went back to cleaning up when there was suddenly a boy with shaggy black hair and a straw hat, and a girl with orange hair walked through the doors. "Do you have any meat?" the boy asked.

"Do I look like I have any meat? This is a bar. We just serve alcohol," Iris responded. These two didn't look like members of the Buggy Pirates, but she hadn't ever seen either of these people before. The boy looked very disappointed that there was no meat at her bar. "I'm so hungry!" he whined in a way that a small child would. Before she could tell him to go whine somewhere else the pirate that she had just kicked out of her bar was back with three of his buddies and burst through the front door.

"We'll teach you a lesson for what you did to me earlier!" the pirate declared. She rolled her eyes and jumped over the bar again as they ran at her. The four of them tried to gang up on her and all came at her at once, but she easily dealt with them. As far as pirates went these guys were weaklings. One of them threw a punch at her and she ducked and rammed her head into his stomach. He immediately went down and she grabbed him by the ankle and threw him into the others and knocked them down to the ground. She walked over to the one that was in the bar earlier and stomped her foot down onto his crotch. The other three stopped trying to get up and looked at her in horror as their friend screamed out in pain as she continued to press her foot into the man's crotch.

"I let you off the hook so easily earlier, and this is how you pay me back? You should have just left with your shattered pride, because at least all I had shattered was your pride," she said as she dug her heel further into his crotch. She looked at the other three, "Take your buddy and leave unless you want me to beat your asses up too." She picked her foot up off the man and turned around to walk away from them. She was amazed when she saw the boy with the straw hat's arm stretch out like rubber to one of the men behind her. She heard a clank and saw a gun now sitting on the ground. The four pirates looked at the boy with the stretching arm in fear and ran off shouldering the one who was still in too much pain from her stomping on his crotch.

"Wow, you're pretty amazing!" the boy exclaimed after his arm had returned back to normal. "But maybe you shouldn't turn your back to people like these," he said with a laugh. "Where did you learn to fight like that? You're good," the boy asked.

"My dad taught me. How did your arm just stretch like that? Who are you?" she responded.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy and I'm going to be the King of Pirates. I'm a rubber man! You're pretty strong, do you want to join my pirate crew?" he happily asked with a grin. King of Pirates? She had heard that term before, but didn't think people were stupid enough to actually think they would be able to achieve it. She was now slightly embarrassed that the boy had saved her. She had let her guard down and she shouldn't have, and if the boy hadn't have been there she probably would have been shot. And why would he want her to join his crew? He didn't even know her name.

"Pirate?!" the orange haired girl shouted and suddenly glared at the boy. "I hate pirates! Pirates took away somebody very important to me!" she screamed and looked at Luffy with disgust. Iris raised an eyebrow as the girl had a meltdown in the bar. Was she not part of Luffy's crew? How did she not know he was a pirate? The girl had also seemed surprised by Luffy being able to stretch his arm like he did. Did she randomly end up on the island at the exact same time as him while the town was being invaded by pirates? Iris decided it really didn't matter to her and what the relationship between them was, but his offer to join his crew could work out to her benefit; she needed a boat to get off the island to go after the navy to find her father again.

"I'll join you on two conditions. Take care of the pirates that are occupying the town and don't let them hurt my bar. If you do those two things I'll join you," she stated. He grinned and nodded his head. The orange haired girl had already left the bar in anger and he left to go after her. She went back to cleaning her bar and thought about why she told him she'd go with him if he took care of the Buggy Pirates. She did need a way off the island, but what would happen to her bar if she left?

A few minutes passed and a man with green hair popped his head through the front door. "Have you seen a kid with a straw hat come through? You're the first person I've seen to ask... What's up with this stupid town?" the guy grumbled. She looked at the green haired man realizing that he was talking about Luffy. He looked to be right around her age if she had to guess, and she made the assumption that he was part of Luffy's crew. She also noticed that this man was extremely attractive. "If this guy is part of Luffy's crew, I'm definitely joining them," she thought to herself.

"Yeah, he left a few minutes ago to go deal with the Buggy Pirates that have taken over the town. Would you like a drink?" she asked. The guy thought about her offer for a few moments and then shook his head. "I might take you up on that after I find Luffy," he said and ran off.

A few more minutes went by and she was now too distracted to finish her cleaning; this was the most excitement she'd seen in this town. Thoughts of leaving this little island and becoming a pirate flooded her mind. Perhaps she would even get a bounty put on her head like her father. She didn't know how her father would feel about her becoming a pirate, but if she would be doing it to find him she was sure he would be okay with it.

Just then she heard a thunderous boom and crashing from outside the bar. She ran out of her bar to see what was going on and her jaw dropped as she saw the row of buildings in front of her bar had been annihilated. She looked in the direction where the Buggy Pirates were and knew instantly that they had done this. It was probably one of the cannonballs that the captain liked to shoot off. Iris felt tears well up in her eyes at the sight. Her hometown was being destroyed before her very eyes, and she felt helpless. There was nothing she could have done to prevent that cannon ball or to deflect it, and if that cannon ball had been shot of in even the slightest different direction it could have been her and her bar that were blown to pieces.

Her frustration quickly turned to anger and she decided she would have to deal with those pirates herself. She started walking towards her destination and ran into ChouChou sitting in front the pet food store growling. The poor little dog was defenseless to save the pet store, but he wouldn't move from the spot. She knew how he felt; it was the last remnant from his owner just as the bar was the last piece of her dad that she had left. It was her treasure.

She went on her way and saw some people moving towards her in the distance. She recognized the green haired man she had seen a few minutes earlier and saw that he was carrying a large cage on his back. She ran towards them and was able to see that Luffy was stuck in the cage and the green haired man was severely injured. "What the hell happened?" she questioned them as the green haired man collapsed on the ground and dropped the cage.

"Oh, you're here!" Luffy exclaimed. "Can you help me get out of this cage?" he asked and she looked him dumbfounded. He had ambitions to become the King of Pirates and couldn't handle these pirates? His dream was all talk after all and he was as stupid as she had thought. "Oh look, a dog! Come here doggy! It's not moving... Is it dead?" Luffy asked and poked the dog. ChouChou reacted by biting Luffy, which led Luffy to react and try to remove the dog from his face. "Ahh! Stupid dog!" he yelled.

Just then the orange haired girl walked up holding a key in her hand. "Here. I can repay you for saving me back there with this," she said and tossed the key on the ground in front of the cage. Before Luffy could grab it ChouChou ate the key and Iris couldn't help wincing. She didn't know why ChouChou at the key, but there's no way he was that hungry. Luffy grabbed the dog and started to fight with the dog trying to make the dog throw the key back up.

"Don't you dare hurt that dog!" Iris heard a familiar voice say. She turned to see the chief walking towards them wearing some strange looking armor type thing over his clothes. "Iris? What's going on here?" he asked and she shook her head.

"I have no idea... I was trying to figure that out myself," she responded. "He told me not too long ago he was going to get rid of the Buggy Pirates so that I'd join his crew, but he obviously isn't as strong as them as he now locked up in a cage. This one needs some medical attention though," she said as she pointed to the green haired man who had managed to sit himself up against a deck. He was starting to have a hard time catching his breath and the bleeding wasn't stopping.

"Crew? You don't mean pirate crew, do you? I forbid it. But... Let's get him up and get him some help. He needs to see a doctor right away," the chief said. Iris helped the green haired man stand, but he refused to go see a doctor. The chief and Iris helped him get to the chief's house instead. "You really should be going to see an actual doctor," the chief said, but the man adamantly refused and insisted that he only needed to sleep it off. "These people are crazy," Iris thought to herself.

"You stay here with him, Iris. If his health deteriorates at all go to where the rest of the villagers are and have the doctor come to him," the chief instructed.

"I can help fight the pirates though! I'm a the strongest fighter in the village and I'm the only one that has a chance at getting rid of them," she protested, but the chief wouldn't let her leave. "You're also a lot faster than I am, and so if he needs a doctor you'll be able to run and get the doctor quicker than I could. Besides, I'm the chief and I should be able to protect my village. I don't need you young'uns getting yourselves hurt," he insisted.

By the time the chief had left the green haired man was fast asleep and snoring. He was a very fine looking man. His face was handsome, and his body was very well defined and muscular. She even thought his green hair was cute. It was safe to make the assumption that he was a swordsman from the three swords he was carrying; though she thought it was somewhat excessive to be carrying three of them. He was obviously loyal to Luffy if he was willing to carry him in that heavy cage with an injury like this. She wondered how long they had been travelling together, and she thought about what it might be like to travel with their pirate crew. This man was making her want to join Luffy's crew more every time she looked at him.

Growing up on this island romance hadn't ever really crossed her mind. There wasn't anybody on the island worth her time, and the pirates and travelers that came through didn't draw her interest either. There was also the whole fishman thing; men that had shown interest in her had no idea she was part fishman. There was something that seemed different about this man, though. She couldn't stop staring at him while he slept and wondering what kind of person he might be. Would his personality be as attractive as his appearance was?

She snapped herself out of her thoughts. There was most likely no point in being attracted to the man. When and if he found out she was half fishman he'd surely have no interest in her whatsoever. Thinking about others finding out about her race brought up memories of everything that had happened to her father. It made her angry just thinking about it and she could feel her blood pressure rising. Perhaps this man wouldn't care, but that seemed like that would be a very unlikely case. Either way, he was still a very handsome man and she was starting to feel frustrated with herself for being so enamored with him. This was not the time or place to be having frivolous thoughts such as these. There were pirates attacking and her beloved bar was in danger.

Then suddenly in the blink of an eye the building around her was collapsing around her and something was crashing through the buildings. Another cannonball? Her bar wouldn't escape this one. Before she could manage to react the building had collapsed on top of her.

"Iris?!" she heard a panicked voice yell.

"Zoro? Are you alive?!" she heard another voice yell.

If she could hear people yelling for her she must not be dead. She managed to push herself up and stand up through the rubble. She was sore and could tell that her body was going to become bruised from this, but she managed to not take any major damage. She looked around to see if the green haired man was still alive and saw him sitting up not too far from where she was at. She looked at him in shock seeing that somebody with an injury like he had was able to survive that. "Ahh, good! You're still alive Zoro! You too!" Luffy said as he pointed to her. Luffy was out of the cage now so they must have managed to get ChouChou to cough up the key.

"Iris! Thank goodness! You're alright!" the chief said with a sign of relief. She looked towards where her bar had been standing just a few moments earlier and saw nothing but destruction. She dropped to her knees and fought back tears. This bar that her father had loved and provided for her with was now a pile of rubble. Her heart was breaking in two as she stared in horror. She felt tears sliding down her cheeks and quickly wiped them away. She ran over to the pile of rubble and started digging through what used to be her bar hoping to fine a memento of what had been standing there moments before, but everything was destroyed. She was only pulling out bits and pieces of things.

"I'm going to kill them all," she growled as she found her way back to her feet. She turned back towards the others and saw the chief shaking in anger; she had never seen him like this before. There was nothing the old man would be able to do against the pirates, but she understood his anger. A fiery rage burned inside of her that brought back memories of when she found out her father had been taken away. These pirates had destroyed her treasure, and they were going to pay for it.

"I can't watch this anymore! They can't ruin the village that we built with our own hands! I'm going to go fight them!" the chief yelled as he started running off.

"You can't! Don't you realize how dangerous these people are? You'll die!" the orange haired girl shouted.

"I know!" the chief retorted and they all saw the tears welling up in his eyes as he turned around for a brief moment before running off again. Seeing the tears in the old man's eyes stopped the orange haired girl in her tracks. She obviously had no idea how much this village meant to the old chief. "I'm coming for you, Buggy the Clown!" the chief yelled as he ran towards the pirates.

"I'm going as well. They won't get away with this," Iris growled as her hands clenched into fists. She bared her teeth in anger not even caring that one of them might notice she didn't have normal human teeth and took off after the chief. She wasn't going to let the old man die so easily. The old chief had treated her like his own family after her father had been taken away, and she wasn't going to let anything happen to him.

"The old man is faster than I thought," she grumbled as she tried to catch up to him and hadn't succeeded in doing so yet. She didn't know he could move half this fast; perhaps his anger was fueling his movements past what was normal. By the time she caught up with him, he was deep in a shouting match with Buggy himself. This was the first time Iris had seen Buggy, but she knew exactly who he was by the big red nose.

Before she was able to say anything she saw a hand fly towards the chief and grab him by the throat. "What the hell?" she muttered in surprise that the pirate was able to detach his hand at will like that. She had never seen such a thing in her life. Was this the power of a devil fruit? She ran over to the chief and pulled the hand off without too much effort, and that caught the attention of Buggy.

"Who are you? Let go of my hand woman!" he yelled as she gripped onto his hand as hard as she could while digging her fingernails into it. A group of pirates around Buggy pointed their guns at her and began yelling. "Captain Buggy! That is the girl who wouldn't give us her booze!" they yelled and he turned to glare at them. "Let go of his hand or we'll shoot!" they yelled. She looked at the one who she had beat up twice earlier and smirked. "Come on down here and I'll beat you up again," she said and dug her heel into the ground. The man covered his crotch with his hands and backed up a few steps. She let go of Buggy's hand hoping that they wouldn't shoot at her. She might be able to deal with dodging them, but there was no way the chief would escape unharmed.

"Let's blow them up with this town!" Buggy yelled as his hand reattached and pointed a large cannon at them. Her mind started racing as she tried to come up with a plan to get out of this situation and to get closer to Buggy to fight him. He might have some weird power but she doubted he was a better close combat fighter than she was. There was no way she was going to die here before she was able to get her father back and pay the navy back for tearing her world apart.

"Buggy! I'm back to kick your ass like I said I would!" she heard from behind her.

"Straw Hat!" Buggy shrieked.

"Leave them alone," Luffy said with a large grin on his face. "You can fight me," he said. The chief started to protest because this was his village and therefore he should be the one to be protecting it. Without so much as thinking it through Luffy hit the chief and knocked him unconscious. Iris couldn't help but laugh, because she knew that Luffy's action was the correct one. The stubborn old man was serious about fighting Buggy on his own and would have been killed in doing so. Iris walked over to the unconscious chief and picked him up to carrying him out of harms way.

"You idiot! How you do such a thing to the chief?!" the orange haired girl shouted angrily.

"He'd just get in my way," Luffy responded. "Hey! Big, ugly, round red nose! Fight me now!" Luffy shouted, and again Iris couldn't help but laugh. This boy might have ambitious dreams that most would view as stupid, but he was entertaining. In fact, she hadn't been so entertained in years. The orange haired girl, the green haired man, and all of Buggy's crew were staring at him in shock. Apparently Buggy's trigger point was his nose and everybody other than Iris seemed to be aware of that.

"Fire the Special Buggy Cannonball now!" Buggy screamed in a rage. The cannon was pointed straight towards Luffy. The orange haired girl and the green haired man started to run away from him. "Move Luffy!" the green haired man shouted.

"I'm not going to move an inch because of some cannon," Luffy said with a grin and secured his straw hat on his head. That infuriated Buggy further and cannonball was fired. "Gum Gum Balloon!" Luffy said and sucked in air letting his body actually expand like a balloon. Iris watched him in awe; she never seen anything like that before. Luffy wasn't joking around earlier when he had said he was a rubber man. An ordinary human certainly couldn't do something like that.

The cannonball came straight at Luffy and it bounced off of his stomach and deflected it straight back where it had come from taking out a good number of Buggy's crew. Perhaps this boy wasn't quite as stupid as she had thought. Even with all of her training and the different types of martial arts she knew there was no way she could have deflected a cannonball. He was stronger than she had given him credit for.

"How is this possible?! That's not something a human can do! You need to explain this right now!" the orange haired woman screamed at Luffy. The orange haired girl and all the screaming she did was starting to get on Iris' nerves. Why was she part of this crew? She didn't seem strong or like she had any helpful skills. The swordsman Iris could understand; he was strong and seemed to feel a strong sense of loyalty towards Luffy. But the orange haired girl? Iris wasn't sure understood why they had her around.

"I'm curious about that too. You've asked me to join your crew so don't you think you should at least explain why you're able to do these things beyond normal human capacity?" Iris asked as she walked up to the three. Before Luffy could respond, however, Buggy was back on the scene. Iris couldn't hide her disgust when she saw that both Buggy and a strange looking man on a unicycle had used their own crew members to shield themselves from the blast. "You're a disgusting excuse for a captain. A captain should take care of his men," she growled at him.

"What?! Are you stupid, girl?! As the captain, any of these men should be happy to give their life protecting me! It is their duty!" Buggy laughed.

"You're right, it is their duty to protect the captain. But a good captain has men that would freely do so of their own accord. These men didn't choose to do so, and so obviously you are not a good enough captain that they felt is worth protecting at the cost of their own life!" she retorted.

Just then another weird looking person popped up that looked like he had a strange fur hat on his head, and a strange fur vest on. The man was quite simple looking; Iris didn't image the man had any sort of intelligence. "What did you do to Richie?!" the man cried pointing to the lion that the man on the unicycle was holding. The man on the unicycle dropped the lion and smirked in a way that made Iris want to vomit. What an awful crew that cared so little for each others well being. The furry man ran over to the lion trying to wake up the lion, and then looked up and saw Luffy standing in front of Buggy.

"AHH! Captain! Be careful, he's a rubber man! He's eaten a devil fruit like you have!" he warned Buggy. That made sense as to why Luffy could be a rubber man; a devil fruit was the answer. It was a simple enough explanation for his strengths that she should have guessed it herself. It might not be something a normal person would guess, but her father had told her all about people with devil fruit abilities that he encountered while he was a pirate. She felt kind of dumb for not guessing it sooner.

"If you knew, why didn't you tell me?!" Buggy screeched and sent the furry man flying towards them. Luffy got a large grin on his face and promptly kicked the man in the chin as he got close enough and sent the man flying away. The unicycle man made his move next. "My name is Cabaji, and I am the proud Fleet Commander of the Buggy Pirates!" he boasted. He immediately came towards Luffy with a sword, but the green haired man intercepted and blocked the Cabaji's sword with his own. "Roronoa Zoro! It's an honor, as a swordsman, to be able to kill you!" Cabaji said.

"You're the famous Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro?!" Iris exclaimed in surprise. Why was a pirate hunger part of a pirate crew now? Even on this small island she knew of the rumors of Roronoa Zoro and his strength as a swordsman. If he was the pirate hunter perhaps three swords wasn't as excessive as she had first thought. She hadn't ever pictured the famed pirate hunter to be young and handsome, either.

"You're hurt, Zoro. Let me fight him," Luffy said and Zoro shook his head with a smirk. "I'm fine. What kind of swordsman would I be if I couldn't deal with a small fry such as him?" Zoro asked and the two started fighting. Cabaji immediately kicked Zoro where he was injured and Iris winced. Zoro's knees buckled and he fell to the ground as he screamed out in pain. She glanced over to Luffy to see if he was going to step in, but he wasn't moving from his spot. She figured that Zoro must still have some tricks up his sleeve. After all, he wouldn't be as famous as he was if he couldn't take out people like Cabaji she decided.

Zoro stood back up and the two continued fighting with Cabaji using his stupid circus act to try and catch Zoro off guard. Iris watched the fight wanting to step in and help the injured man, but knew that he wouldn't appreciate that. Swordsmen were a prideful bunch. She continued watching from the side as Cabaji kicked Zoro where he was wounded again. It was written all over Zoro's face how much pain he was in, and Iris didn't know how he was still standing.

"It must be fun for you to poke my wound," Zoro said as he stood back up. "If it's that much fun, I'll just give myself even more of a handicap! How's this? Is it good enough for you?" he said as he took one of his own swords and slashed the wound back open again. Iris' jaw dropped. This was crazy; why would he do that? Apparently there wasn't much of a brain behind that handsome face and body she decided.

"What the hell? Y-Y-You're insane," Cabaji stuttered.

"I will become the strongest swordsman alive. Now let me show you the differences in our level. I won't allow myself to lose to anyone that calls themselves a swordsman. I will finish this here and now," Zoro said resolutely. He had a smirk running across his face and arrogance in his eyes. Iris felt her heart skip a beat; he had just became even more attractive. Sure, it was crazy to stab himself, but the confidence he was exuding had her wanting to get to know the man more. The famed Pirate Hunter was famous and feared by pirates for a reason after all.

"Wow! You're so cool!" Luffy shouted. The orange haired girl, on the other hand, looked sick to her stomach. Zoro's breathing was labored, and she couldn't help but feel somewhat worried about him. Luffy was cheering him on and the confidence in Zoro's eyes wasn't wavering.

"Well, at least you've got an excuse to use for when you lose to me," Cabaji said.

"Ha! Even being wounded like this my fate as swordsman would be sealed if I lost to you," Zoro retorted with a laugh as he put one sword in his mouth and held the other two swords in his hand. "You asshole..." Cabaji said under his breath as he glared at Zoro.

While Iris was watching Zoro and Cabaji fight she could hear Luffy and the orange haired girl talking about something and then the orange haired girl ran off. Iris was somewhat glad to see the girl run off; the angry yelling and freaking out she did was annoying. "Why do you hang around with that girl?" Iris asked Luffy.

"Nami? She's our navigator!" he replied enthusiastically. Navigator, huh? Well, at least the girl had some sort of function. She must be some great navigator if they were willing to put up with such a whiny girl. She turned her attention back to the fight in front of her in time to see Cabaji throw a bunch of spinning tops at Zoro. Zoro easily slashed through the tops with his swords while Cabaji started cycling up the wall of one of the buildings, and before any of them knew it Cabaji was in the air right above Zoro with his sword pointed down at Zoro.

"Chop Chop cannon!" Iris heard Buggy yell and turned around to see Buggy's hand coming towards them. "I'll hold him down Cabaji! You finish him!" Buggy shrieked and she immediately reacted by diving onto the hand. Buggy screamed out when the weight of her body hit his hand. She picked up the hand and started pushing the fingers backwards one by one to dislocated them. Buggy screamed out in pain and it was music to her ears. The pirate that had destroyed the town and her bar was going to have to pay for what he had done.

"Stay out of Zoro's fight!" Luffy shouted at Buggy. "You can let go of his hand now. I don't think he'll interrupt this fight again," Luffy said. She hesitated but let go of the hand and watched it fly back to Buggy. His hand reattached and she watched him trying to fix his dislocated fingers and couldn't help but laugh. She had wanted to continue causing the pirate pain, but decided she should do as Luffy had asked if she was planning on joining his crew.

Behind her she could hear Zoro gasping for air and was tempted to turn around a watch what was happening, but she wasn't going to take her eyes off of Buggy. She didn't know how Luffy could be so calm in this situation and trusting of Buggy to not interrupt again, because she sure didn't trust the deplorable pirate. She could hear Zoro expressing how tired he was and Cabaji laughing sinisterly. Iris couldn't resist turning to see the fight, and turned around just in time to see Zoro get back up to his feet.

"You didn't let me finish," Zoro stated. "I'm not physically tired. I'm tired of dealing with somebody with such lacking skills. You're boring me," he continued as he kicked Cabaji off of his unicycle. The arrogance in his eyes had not wavered at all, despite the fact that he was having a hard time just standing. His determination was beyond anything that Iris had seen before; he was quite the intriguing individual. She wanted to figure out how he could push himself so far, and had made up her mind that she would join them if Luffy asked her again and if they were able to defeat the Buggy Pirates.

"It's time for me to show you my real sword skills! I will finish you off!" Cabaji yelled as he got up and ran at Zoro.

"Oni..." Zoro said as he took a fighting stance. "...giri!" he shouted as he slashed Cabaji and Cabaji fell to the ground. Onigiri? That was the name of his attack? Iris couldn't help but laugh a little at the name of the attack. She would not have guessed him to be type to name his attacks after food, let alone rice balls. It was an effective and powerful attack though, so perhaps it didn't matter what he called it. "It's such a waste. Such a strong person working under a common thief," Cabaji said in between gasping for air before he passed out.

"He's not a common thief. He's a pirate," Zoro said as he grabbed onto the bandanna he was wearing and pulled it off. He fell to the ground and closed his eyes, "Luffy, I'm done. I'm going to sleep now." Luffy nodded his head and in an instant Zoro was asleep. Iris couldn't believe that anybody could fall asleep that easily with an enemy still in front of them. Buggy was surely stronger than Cabaji, and even with Zoro's injuries she couldn't imagine falling asleep. He must have a lot of trust in Luffy.

Iris watched Zoro sleep as she waiting for Luffy to fight Buggy. She thought about jumping in and starting the fight herself, but she was curious to see what Luffy could do. If he was the captain she was going to leave the island with he had better be capable of taking care of a crew. The two pirate captains seemed to be arguing about who was going to become the Pirate King and Iris didn't have too much interest in the topic. When the subject changed to Red Haired Shanks her interest was piqued. Luffy knew Red Haired? Everybody and their dog knew how famous the Red Haired pirate was. How did Luffy know him? And did she hear correctly that the straw hat he wore was a gift from Red Haired Shanks?

When she looked back to the fight Luffy had lost all composure and was beating the crap out of Buggy. From the bits and pieces she heard of their conversation it seemed to be over the damage Buggy had caused to the straw hat. Up until now Luffy had been nothing but smiles, and now his expression was one of pure hatred. That hat must mean an awful lot to him.

Buggy then started to explain how he knew Shanks and why he hated the man. Iris couldn't understand from his story why he hated Shanks. Buggy was a stupid man though, so perhaps he didn't need a valid reason to hate somebody. Stupid people didn't typically make much sense to her. Buggy's attention suddenly shifted and she realized that he was looking at Nami who was back in the street. The girl was holding a large bag which Iris assumed was Buggy's treasure, and he was going to get it back. His top half separated from his bottom half, and he flew at Nami.

Without thinking about it Iris ran over to where Nami was and stood in front of her. Not only would she protect the girl, she would get a chance to face Buggy herself. He didn't seem to think that she was a threat to him, but he was wrong. As his top half came at the two girls Iris' fist was waiting for him. Nami was screaming behind her, and when Buggy's face got close enough Iris grabbed onto the collar of his shirt with one hand and punched him in the face with the other. He looked at her in shock and stopped his attach for a moment.

"You stupid girl! How dare you protect this lowly thief! You'll pay with your life!" he screamed and Iris punched his face again before he was able to continue yelling at her. "Why aren't you listening to me?! You must be..." he started when she punched him again. She couldn't believe that he was so easy to take on. He was more concerned about making sure that he got the last word than he was anything else.

"I'm not here to protect the girl. I'm here to pay you back for what you've done to my town. You've destroyed it, and you destroyed my bar. I won't forgive you," she snarled. Buggy's face suddenly looked very pained and Iris looked back to where Buggy's lower half was. Luffy had kicked Buggy in the crotch and had done so very well by the look on Buggy's face.

"I'm your opponent, Buggy. Leave them out of this," Luffy said.

"Give me back my treasure!" Buggy shouted in rage when he had recovered and his body split into many more pieces. All of his body parts started flying towards Nami and his treasure, but he stopped midair and started laughing hysterically, and then his laughing turned into screaming. She looked to Luffy and saw that he had gotten a hold of one of Buggy's feet and was now slamming Buggy's toes into the ground. This power that Buggy had sure had a lot of drawbacks to it; with all those body parts flying around it wasn't too difficult to grab onto them and cause him damage.

Luffy dropped the foot and came running towards them. Buggy had managed to grab onto the treasure bag and him and Nami were struggling to get the bag for themselves. Iris watched as Luffy kicked Buggy's head away from Nami and the head was sent flying. The bag that Nami was holding onto ripped and her treasures were scattered all over the ground. "My treasures!" she cried and started gathering them up.

"Your hat looks pretty bad," Iris observed as Luffy put the hat back on and he pulled it down to where she couldn't see his eyes. When he let go of the hat and she could see his eyes again he was back to smiling. "It's alright, at least I still have it. And I feel better now that I've beaten up Buggy," he said.

"Straw Hat!" she heard Buggy's voice say and she looked to see his head floating back towards them. "Chop Chop pieces assemble!" he shouted, but all that came to him where his hands a feet. The legs, body, and arms were missing. Iris laughed loudly at the sight. He was even more ridiculous looking than his normal self.

"Are you looking for these?" Nami asked from behind them. Iris turned to look and saw that Nami had tied all of Buggy's body parts together. Luffy laughed and stretched his arms far behind him. "Gum Gum Bazooka!" he shouted as his arms flung forward and sent Buggy flying. Luffy's power was rather intriguing to Iris, and she had a feeling that if she hung around Luffy that she'd just watch him get stronger and stronger.

"So... I did one of the two things you asked. I got rid of the pirates, but I wasn't able to save your bar. Join my crew anyway! You're strong. I don't think I got your name..." Luffy said.

"My name is Iris, and I'll join your crew. I have a reason for going out to sea, so your offer actually works out well for me. I have someone I should say goodbye to before I leave though," Iris responded.

"Woo hoo! I got two new crew members today!" he exclaimed.

"Wait, I'm not going to become a pirate! Me going along with you guys just makes sense for me, and I'll go my own way when you aren't useful to me anymore. I'm not part of your crew," Nami shouted over Luffy as she was gathering up the treasure again, but Luffy wasn't paying attention to her shouting. He was standing over Zoro trying to wake him up. Zoro sat up, but he still looked exhausted and dizzy from all the blood he lost. There was no way that his wound had healed up yet, and it wouldn't be smart for him to start moving around.

"You beat Buggy already? I don't think I can walk yet though," Zoro said groggily.

"Yeah, I know. We got two new crew members though!" Luffy said excitedly as he pointed to Nami and Iris. Just then the townspeople came into the village looking like they had seen a ghost as they took in the destroyed town. When they noticed that the chief was unconscious they became angry and demanded to know what had happened. Before Iris was able to explain the situation to them, Luffy plainly stated that he had done it. Iris smiled at the boy's honesty and realized that she felt happier at that moment than she had in years.

"Get them!" the townspeople shouted after Luffy told them that they were pirates. Luffy picked Zoro up and situated him on his back so that he'd be able to carry him as he ran. "Go on ahead, I'll catch up to you! Don't worry about waiting for me, I'll able to catch up" Iris shouted as she ran towards her house that was outside of the town to gather a few things. She ran into the house and grabbed all of her money and threw it in her backpack. She also threw in there the few bottles of booze she kept at her house rather than at the bar, a change of clothes, and some non perishable food. The last thing she grabbed was her father's favorite bandanna that was still lying on the counter where he had left it 4 years prior. She folded the bandanna a few times and tied it around her neck so that it looked like a choker necklace. This deep purple bandanna was something that her father had worn daily as a headband to hold his hair out of his face when he was working. It was something that all of the crew members of the pirate ship he was on had one of, and had worn.

She stepped out of her house and locked the front door as she left. She walked to her mom's grave and felt awkward. She hadn't come to the grave site since she was a small child. She knew that the resentment she held towards her mother for dying when Iris was so young was not fair, but she felt the resentment just the same. She couldn't leave the island holding onto that resentment, and so she decided she would make amends before she left.

"I'm leaving, mom. I know I haven't come here in a long time, and I'm sorry. I know it's not your fault that you got sick, and honestly if you hadn't have become sick who knows if I would have gotten to know dad; he may have just stayed a pirate and let you raise me. I'm becoming a pirate now too, and I'm going to go find dad. I don't know much about the pirates I've agreed to join, I don't even know how big their crew is or where they're headed. I know it's reckless, but I can tell they're good people. I was actually able to smile and be happy today. I haven't felt happy since dad was taken away, so they must be good people. Not to mention, Roronoa Zoro is part of the crew and he's super strong. He's cute, too. They don't know I'm half fishman, but hopefully they won't mind when they find out. I'm going to go now, but I'll be back someday. When I come back it will be with dad, I promise that," Iris said. She sighed and felt that a weight had been lifted off of her.

She started to run towards the dock and stopped to turn around and take on last look at her home and her life on this small island. She smiled and took off. When she got to the docks she could see two boats had set sail and she dove into the water an started swimming. Being half fishman meant she was an excellent swimmer. She could breath underwater and her body was built to be in the water. She had nothing on a full blooded fishman, but she was a much better swimmer than a human could ever hope to be.

She caught up with the boats and climbed onto the boat that Luffy and Zoro were on. Nami was on a separate boat that had Buggy's insignia on it. "Whoa, you're a fast swimmer!" Luffy exclaimed as she took off her backpack and set it on the floor of the boat. "So there are only four of us?" she asked in surprise to see that they were travelling on such a small boat and that Luffy didn't really have a crew. These boats wouldn't stand up to storms or rough waters, and with so few people they couldn't hardly operate a larger boat.

"Don't worry, we'll get more! I want a cook, an a musician!" he said with a big, goofy grin and she laughed. It felt wonderful to truly laugh and feel happy. Hopefully this feeling would last with these people, and they would continue to make her feel happy. She hadn't felt this feeling in years, and it felt amazing. Luffy laughed with her, and Zoro smiled as he was resting.

"You kids!" she heard coming from the docks and looked to see the chief. She could tell from his cracking voice that he was crying. She stood up and dove back into the water. She swam as fast as she could back to the island. She jumped out of the water and gave the old man a hug. "Thank you for everything. Your kindness to me, and your acceptance of my father means more to me than I can put into words. I'll come back someday after I find my father, I promise," she said. She dove back into the water before he was able to say anything and let the water hide the tears now streaming down her cheeks.

She hadn't planned on saying goodbye to anybody other than her mom, but she also hadn't expected the chief to be awake so soon and to come see them off. He had looked out for her all these years, and she knew his acceptance of her father was a large part of why the village accepted him so readily. He had made it clear earlier that he didn't approve of her being a pirate, but she had to make her own decisions and hope that he would forgive her. She got back to the boat and climbed back on. "Sorry, I thought I could leave without saying goodbye, but I was wrong..." she said as she tried to wring out her wet clothes.

"You kids take care of Iris! If anything happens to her I won't forgive you!" the chief shouted.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure she's safe! I won't let any of my friends get hurt!" Luffy shouted back giving the chief a thumbs up. He looked over to her and grinned and she smiled back. This was the start of a new adventure. Iris felt free and like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She was following in her father's footsteps by becoming a pirate. She knew the life of a pirate wasn't an easy one, but it felt right to her. She knew without a doubt that she had made the right decision in leaving the island and joining Luffy. She couldn't wait to see what their next adventure would hold for her.


	2. Chapter 2

After climbing onto Luffy's boat and leaving the island she had spent her whole life on behind, Iris felt slightly uncomfortable. She had been so happy to climb onto the boat and say goodbye to her hometown, and still thought she had made the correct decision, but she couldn't shake this feeling of uneasiness. She had just left behind everything she had ever known, and that reality was starting to sink in. She had always known she would leave the village, but not necessarily in this fashion. She had always pictured at least having some sort of plan in mind when leaving.

The biggest thing making her uneasy was that the people she was now traveling with didn't know about her being half fishman. Hopefully she just was making too big of a deal out of this in her mind. She was sure that it was going to come up at some point, but she didn't know how to broach the subject. Should she bring it up herself? Luffy already seemed to like her, so perhaps he wouldn't care? After all it's not like it changed who she was.

The island she was from was small and boring, but at least she didn't have to worry about the people there uncovering her secret. They all knew of her race, and they all knew who her father was. They had been welcoming of him when her mom had died, and she had lived a fairly good life on that island. They had always treated her well and like she was no different from anybody else. After her father was taken by the navy she had made up her mind that she would go after him when she was able to, but she didn't ever imagine that she might have second thoughts about leaving.

With how quickly she had left she didn't even get to tell the others goodbye. At least she got to tell the chief, who was like a grandfather to her, goodbye. She had planned on leaving and not looking back, but she was glad that she was able to tell him goodbye. She knew she'd be kicking herself later if she hadn't told him goodbye. He was strange, but he was a good old man. He had been her and her father's biggest supporter in the village. She had a feeling that he truly didn't ever have any bad thoughts or feelings towards her father.

Really when she thought about it, she wasn't sure why fishmen were treated so bad. Sure, they looked different than humans, but isn't that to be expected since since fishman originated from an island under the sea? It wasn't as if fishmen didn't have any human like characteristics. She supposed she didn't have to understand it, but she hoped that she would become strong enough that it didn't matter what her race was.

She hated having to think about hiding her race, because it made her feel as though she was ashamed of who she was and she wasn't. She was proud of the abilities she had because of being a fishman. She was proud to be her father's daughter and to be half fishman; honestly she'd love it if she had been a full blooded fishman. Her struggle came with knowing that people would make judgements about her without getting to know her just by her being half fishman. She fully well knew how badly fishmen were treated from years of listening to people's abusive language towards her dad.

"What's wrong, Iris?" Luffy asked and she realized that she had been staring off into space as she thought. She shrugged her shoulders and decided to change the subject by asking how Luffy he had met both Nami and Zoro. She was surprised to hear that Luffy and Zoro hadn't been traveling together long; Zoro seemed to have a strong sense of loyalty towards Luffy already and she had assumed that they had sailed together for a long time. Luffy had sought our Zoro because he wanted a strong swordsman and had heard that Zoro was the best around.

Luffy explained how Zoro had been his first crew member, and how they had met on the island that was home to the navel base controlled by Captain Morgan. She listened intently as he talked about how they defeated Captain Morgan and overthrew the naval base. Zoro interrupted the story every once in awhile to correct Luffy, but it made her happy hearing that those two meshed so well. Teamwork was very important to having a strong crew, and it sounded like those two had had each others backs since they had made an alliance.

She was impressed to hear that the two of them had taken down a naval base. Becoming a pirate with them meant that she would be going up against the navy too. She could hardly wait for the day that she would be able to fight against and take down the navy. If they were able to make a name for themselves as pirates they would probably have the navy chasing them. Thinking about that made her know that with 100% certainty that she had made the right decision to join Luffy.

As for how he met Nami, it was a much shorter story. They met in Iris' hometown and she had initially decided she hated him because he was a pirate. She hated all pirates. Name was actually the reason Luffy got locked in a cage by the Buggy Pirates; she had tricked him into being handed over to them as her boss to avoid getting herself in trouble with the pirates. She was a thief who only stole from pirates she said. She made it very clear that she was not part of their crew, and that she would only stick around as long as it was beneficial to her. She seemed to enjoy talking about herself and was glad that Iris had asked about how she had come into the picture.

"How about you? Why don't you tell us about yourself?" Zoro asked her. She didn't know where to start and looked down before responding. "I mean, you don't have to say anything, but if you're going to be sailing with us it might be helpful to know at least what your skill set includes," he continued. She realized his questioning of her was normal, but she didn't know where to start.

"I'm 21-years-old, and I've practiced multiple forms of martial arts all my life... Including a form of aquatic martial arts. I've mastered a few of them. I'm strong, and the best swimmer you'll ever meet. I'm also one hell of a bar tender. I've been around alcohol my whole life since my dad raised me owning a bar," she started. She hoped that her answer would suffice. She didn't typically like talking about herself and felt awkward doing so. It made her feel vulnerable to give out information about herself, and she hated to feel vulnerable. In fact she equated it with being weak.

"Bar? Oh yeah, you offered me a drink back there before the town was blown up. That's too bad! I should have taken you up on that offer," Zoro said with a sigh.

"Aquatic martial arts?" Nami asked in a suspicious tone ignoring Zoro, and Iris bit her tongue. She knew from Nami's tone that she shouldn't have given out that bit of information. Not everyone had heard of fishman karate, but she gathered that Nami did from her reaction. It was a type of martial arts that only fishmen could practice. She had said it to test the waters, and had gotten a bite. Iris had a feeling that her and Nami wouldn't get along. Iris' first impression of the girl was that she was annoying, and Iris now had a feeling the girl was racist.

"My dad taught me. My goal is to rescue him from the navy. He was a pirate, and had a bounty on his head. 14 years after he had given up his pirating life to raise me, the navy showed up out of the blue and took him away," she said plainly.

"Ahh... I'm so jealous! I'll have a bounty on my head sometime soon too! And I wish I was a good swimmer. I can't swim anymore because of the Gum Gum fruit. I'm hungry..." Luffy whined as his stomach growled. She was thankful that he was a scatterbrain and had changed the subject. "Say, if you're such a good swimmer, do you think you can catch us some fish?" he asked excitedly and she nodded her head yes. "Yahoo! I'm starving!" he exclaimed.

"We don't have a way to cook the fish on this little boat... Are you fine with raw fish?" she asked and he nodded his head enthusiastically. She took off her shoes and set them in the boat being careful not to expose the webbing between her toes. She jumped off the boat and into the water and swam down to find some fish. She had learned at a young age that being half fishman made fish not so wary of her as they were of humans. She was able to catch them easier than most and had learned to be an excellent fisherman.

Once she was far enough into the water to where the others wouldn't be able to see her she took off her gloves to reveal the webbing between her fingers. She stuck the gloves into her bra so they wouldn't be lost in the ocean and let her fingers stretch out. It felt so nice to stretch out her fingers and not have the webbing suppressed by the gloves. The webbing between her fingers enabled her to move even better in the water. She swam down deeper and found a school of fish. She swam up next to them and quickly grabbed two in her hands. She started to bite into a fish to take back up, but realized that would probably give away that she wasn't a normal human. A normal person couldn't breath underwater, and so carrying a fish back in her mouth would have been stupid of her.

So instead she chose to use some of her fishman karate to manipulate the water around her. She bent the current so that the fish were shook up and ran into each other in a panic. They collided and some of them became unconscious and it was easy for her grab an armful and swim back up to the surface. She threw the fish she was holding into the boat. "I'm going to get more. I'll be back," she said.

She swam back down deep into the sea multiple times to get more fish and once she had thrown a few dozen fish into the boat she came back up. She knew that might be more fish than they could eat, but she figured if there were leftovers she could use it as bait for bigger fish if they wanted.

She pulled the gloves out from her bra and and fastened them back on while she was still treading water before getting back into the boat. She pulled herself in and was amazed to see how many fish had already been eaten. Luffy was practically inhaling the fish. She quickly put her shoes back on and tried to wring the water out of her clothes. She then sat down and grabbed a fish and was about to bite into it and saw that Nami was looking like she was trying to not vomit.

"How can you eat that?!" Nami asked.

"You've eaten sushi before, haven't you? What's the difference?" Iris asked.

"That is not sushi! It's still got skin, and blood, and bones! Gross!" Nami exclaimed. Iris shrugged her shoulders and bit into the fish. Sure, cooked and prepared fish was better, but this would do just fine. Luffy and Zoro definitely didn't seem to mind eating the raw fish. She finished eating the fish and tossed the parts she didn't eat back into the ocean. She was shocked when she looked back to the pile of fish and saw that it was gone. Luffy was sitting with and expanded belly looking happy, and Zoro looked like he was going to fall asleep again. She thought about offering to go get more, but decided not to. If Luffy wanted more he would ask.

Iris reached into the backpack she had brought and pulled out a bottle of sake. "Let's drink to a new adventure," she said as she opened the bottle. Zoro perked up at the mention of having a drink and was fully awake now. "This is the finest sake on Earth. It is made from water at the bottom of the oceans depths. My dad always said that no other sake could compare," she explained. She took a drink of the sake and then held the bottle out. "Since we don't have any cups you'll just have to share the bottle with me," she explained.

Zoro reached out and grabbed the bottle out of her hands. "This is good!" he said after taking a drink and passed the bottle to Luffy. Luffy took a drink and passed it back to Iris. She held the bottle out towards Nami's boat, but she shook her head. "I don't drink with pirates," she said in a condescending tone. Iris felt her blood pressure rise, but she chose to bite her tongue.

"You're missing out on some excellent sake," Zoro said in a taunting tone to Nami. This superb sake was made on the fishman island, though they had no idea. She had never been to the island, but she knew it was an island in the Grand Line and it was where her father was from. The water used was said to the cleanest, and most pure water in the world. This was the first time she had had the sake, and it was definitely as good as she had imagined. Working in a bar she had tried many different kinds of sake, but they all paled in comparison. She had planned on leaving this bottle unopened until she could share it with her dad, but she decided sharing it with her new captain and crew mate was good too.

As they shared the sake she noticed that Zoro seemed to enjoy alcohol quite a lot, so she filed that away in her brain. She could definitely use that to help her get to know him. She wouldn't get him drunk or anything, but she could use it as a common grounds.

"It's official! By exchanging sake we agree to become the best pirate crew ever!" Luffy said as he threw his hands up in the air excitedly. She smiled as she looked at her new captain and crew mate. Luffy's joyful demeanor was contagious and his laughter was able to make her forget her doubts momentarily. She had a feeling, that even with as strong as she was, that her strength was still lacking in comparison to this carefree person. She would have to continue getting stronger so that she wouldn't hold them back. Not to mention, she had a competitive nature and was not one to take being bested by others.

They finished the sake and she leaned back. She tilted her head up to look at the now night sky. It was a beautiful and clear night, and out on the middle of the ocean it was dark and she could see every star in the sky. She wasn't sure if it was the sake, the peaceful night, or Luffy's laughter throughout the evening that had helped calm her, but she was feeling much calmer now. "Hey Iris, do you want to keep lookout first?" Luffy asked and she nodded her head. Those two had fought a difficult battle earlier; they deserved to sleep. She would take on what Luffy asked of her, and this was a simple enough request. "Okay! Wake me up when you're tired," he said and fell asleep almost instantly.

She turned her head to look over at the boat Nami was on and saw the girl was sleeping. Perhaps Nami's suspicion of Iris' aquatic martial arts had been in Iris' head. Maybe Nami had just never heard of such a thing and was merely curious about it. Iris decided she was being overly defensive because of watching what her father had gone through. She knew she didn't look like a fishman, and it was unlikely that any of them were privy to her secret. Nobody that had come through her town had guessed she was a fishman, and she had dealt with a lot of different travelers and pirates over the years.

As they sailed through the night Iris watched the ocean waters and let the sound of the waves help her mind stay quiet. Being in the water was her escape. When she was growing up and she'd be angry about something or another, she would always run out to the waters and dive in. She would let her body float along the waves and would listen to the ocean. One of the perks of being a fishman was that she could breath underwater and didn't have to worry about the waves pulling her under and drowning. She was able to have no real fear of the ocean, unlike most people.

One of the things she had observed about the ocean was the grand personality it had, and Iris had great respect for it. After her father had been taken away, the ocean had been her place of solace. It was always there for her. So listening to it now, when her head was still questioning her decision, made her feel at ease.

It was too bad that Luffy wasn't able to swim because of his devil fruit powers. She almost pitied him for that, but at the same time she knew that his Gum Gum abilities were something that would make him stand out in the pirate world. If he was able to master his powers, then he might have a shot a rising up through the other new up and coming pirates. At least if she was at his side then he wouldn't have to worry about drowning; she would make sure that never happened. With her fishman abilities she would make sure to keep him safe.

She knew from her father that it was a crew's job to keep their captain safe. When she agreed to come be part of Luffy's crew she was agreeing to put her life on the line for him. He should do his best to protect his crew, but when it came down to it she knew that the captain's life should be everybody's priority. A crew would fall apart without their captain.

She looked to her sleeping captain and smiled. He even looked happy and carefree as he slept. His straw hat was securely attached to his head, and was newly repaired from the damage Buggy had done to it. She was surprised when Nami had offered to fix it; perhaps he was winning her over even though she wouldn't admit to it. Iris had only known him a few hours, but his infectious smile and carefree personality had won her over already. When she started to overthink her decision to come with him, she could look to him and be reassured that she had made the right decision. She wasn't sure what it was about him that made her forget her doubts but it did. She didn't hardly know the boy, but he had a magnetic personality.

She then turned her gaze to Zoro. He was sleeping soundly and didn't look as pained as she would have thought. A normal person would not have survived what he had gone through today, and if by some miracle they had they would be suffering a whole lot more than he seemed to be. His clothes were blood stained and ripped, though the bleeding seemed to have stopped. Under normal circumstances he would be out of commission for weeks, but he wasn't a normal person. She could tell by watching him fight earlier that this man was a beast.

She was still shocked to be sailing with the famous Pirate Hunter. His reputation stretched across the East Blue, and probably to other seas as well. He was a renowned bounty hunter that pirates feared, but she was glad to have him on her side. She found it funny that he had never considered himself a bounty hunter. The more of the sake he drank the more chatty he had gotten and revealed that he only fought wanted pirates to make a living as he trained to become the strongest swordsman alive. That, and he wasn't sure how to get back to his village. They had all had a good laugh to find out that Zoro was lost, and had taken up bounty hunting because he couldn't get back home.

He was strong, and reliable though. His muscular body showed off the years of training that he had undergone. Not only were the toned muscles attractive, but they allowed him to have a beast like strength. She let her brain wander to thoughts of possible romance, though she knew it was highly unlikely that he'd be interested in her. She didn't have much to offer, but she would do her best to become stronger and become somebody worthy of his affections. She knew it was silly to be having such thoughts about a man she had only known a few hours, but she let herself indulge in the thoughts anyway.

She thought about different scenarios in how a romantic relationship could form between the two of them. She daydreamed about telling him that she was half fishman and him being attracted to her all the more. Or that it wouldn't matter to him what her race was because his attraction to her was so strong. There were endless scenarios she could come up with in her head, but all she could do was hope that one of them would work out.

She then turned her thoughts to how they would become an actual crew. It seemed that Luffy really had no game plan, other than knowing he wanted a cook and a musician for some reason. She could understand having a cook around, but not so much the musician. They would need strong individuals and hopefully some that had experience with sailing. She had no idea how to sail, and from what she could tell the only one that really seemed comfortable with sailing and navigating was Nami, and Nami had already made it clear she wasn't a part of their crew. That meant they'd have to find a navigator. A shipwright would be a good thing to have too.

She looked over the horizon and saw that there were no other boats in the area, and the sea was calm. She was glad it was a clear night for sailing, as he really didn't know how they would handle any sort of rough seas in these two dinky boats. If they came across other boats they'd have to ditch Nami's boat and all sail in the smaller boat she was on. The boat she was on had no jolly roger or any way to identify itself as a pirate boat, unlike Nami's boat which boasted the Buggy Pirates insignia. Iris didn't want to have to do that though, so she hoped that there would be smooth sailing and that they wouldn't come across another boat.

Her thoughts then turned back to her hometown. Hopefully nobody would touch her home while she was gone. Her bar was no longer a worry since it was destroyed, but she did wonder what would be built where her bar was. Luffy had left half of Nami's treasure back on the island to help them rebuild, and Nami had been furious about that. Iris was grateful to him though; he was helping make sure that her village was taken care of. He wasn't your typical pirate no matter how she looked at it.

She then looked over to Nami's boat and wondered how long that girl would travel with them. Would she stab them in the back whenever it was convenient for her, like how she turned Luffy into Buggy? Or would she grow to like being a pirate with them? She had a deep seeded hate of pirates, but Iris didn't think that Luffy was like any pirate that Nami could have possibly encountered before. He was a good kid. He didn't seem very bright, but she didn't doubt for a second that he was a good person. Iris wasn't sure that she liked the idea of Nami continuing to sail with them, but if Luffy wanted Nami there wasn't much she could do about it.

The night passed and soon she could see the sun starting to rise over the horizon. The adrenaline surging through her body had settled down and she was starting to feel tired, but she didn't want to wake the others up. She was used to late nights from working at the bar, and there had been many sleepless nights as she schemed on how she would find her father and free him. She told herself that staying up all night keeping watch was no big deal, even though her eyes were starting to feel heavy.

"Ooh! I slept good!" she finally heard Luffy say happily. She looked over to him and said good morning to him. "Have you been watching all night? Aren't you tired?" he asked and she nodded with a yawn. Nami was awake now, and Luffy was complaining about being hungry. There was a small island appearing on the horizon that Iris pointed out to them, but Nami said it was an uninhabited island and there was no point in stopping.

"Let's go! I'm hungry!" Luffy shouted and started rowing the boat towards the island. He rowed the boat up to the shore, and Nami did the same with her boat. "You stay on the boat with Zoro, Iris. Nami and I will go find some meat!" Luffy stated and Iris agreed. She curled up on the floor of the boat and closed her eyes, and she quickly fell asleep.

As she fell asleep she fell into a nightmare. It started out a peaceful dream where she was working in the bar with her dad and she was happy. Things were how they used to be, but then suddenly the navy came and took him away from her and there was nothing she could do about it. She could feel her heart sinking as she watched them take him away. She ran after them, but they were much faster than she was. Her father was yelling at her to stay back, but she couldn't. She couldn't watch on the sidelines as they took him away.

They boarded her father onto their large boat and set sail away from the island. She dove into the rough, stormy sea waters and swam after the boat as fast as she could in a panic. She swam, and swam, but seemed she would never catch up to the boat and she could feel herself having a panic attack out in the middle of the ocean. She was screaming out the the navy to stop, but they couldn't even hear her. Her anxieties were overwhelming as her and she could no longer think. All she knew was that her world was crashing down on her and she couldn't hold back the tears. Her chest felt tight, and she was having a hard time breathing.

"Iris! Hey, Iris!" she heard a voice say and looked around to find where the voice was coming from but didn't see anybody. "Iris! Wake up!" she heard and started to come back to reality as she could feel somebody shaking her. When she finally woke up her body was still in a panic. She was sweating, and her body was shaking. "What's wrong, Iris?" she heard Luffy ask and she looked over to him. She could tell from the look on their faces that the panic attack that she was having in her dream had translated into real life too. Luffy looked concerned for her, and even though she couldn't think straight yet she was glad that he was there.

"I-I-I'm sorry... I was having a n-n-nightmare..." she stammered as she tried to calm herself down. Her heart was racing and she was felt like the air was heavy and pressing down on her body. Nami handed her a piece of fruit that Iris assumed was from the island they had stopped at and she took it from her.

"Maybe eating something will help calm you down," Nami said as she passed over the piece of fruit from her boat. Iris must have looked pretty awful if Nami was even concerned about her. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath, and then bit into the fruit. The fruit was quite juicy and had a strong, sweet flavor. It wasn't something she had eaten or even seen before; it didn't grown on her island. She could feel her heart beat start to slow down to a more normal pace.

"That must have been some nightmare. You looked terrified," Nami said and Iris nodded her head. She hadn't had a dream like that in years. She should have been able to realize it was a dream since she hadn't been up when the navy had taken her dad away, but she didn't realize it until after Luffy woke her up and she was already in a panic. Right after her father had been taken away by the navy she would have awful night terrors, but those had stopped within the first year after he was gone. It was probably from the stress of leaving her home and now her brain was running wild.

"I'm fine now, thanks. Sorry to cause such a scene," Iris said as she finished the fruit feeling somewhat embarrassed. What a great first impression she must be giving them with a full on panic attack while she slept. They probably thought she couldn't handle being a pirate if she couldn't even manage to sleep without freaking out. Hopefully she wouldn't have a panic attack like that again.

"Don't apologize! Everybody has bad dreams," Luffy said with a smile and she halfheartedly smiled back at him. She really hoped that he wasn't just saying that to try and make her feel better. The last thing she would want would be pity from her captain or anybody else. "So where are we headed?" Iris asked and Luffy immediately responded by shouting the Grand Line. "We're not going there like this. We need more people, supplies, and a better boat. I've heard so many tales of the Grand Line, and I know better than to go in like this," Iris stated. Luffy was very ambitious, but not so bright.

"Iris is right. We wouldn't last a day in the Grand Line like this. We're going to go to a small island that's a ways north from where we are. I bet we can get there in two days," Nami stated.

"What kind of stories?" Luffy asked ignoring what Nami had said.

"My dad is from the Grand Line, and the pirate crew he was on would sail through the Grand Line. I have his stories," Iris explained.

"Wooow! Your dad was actually from the Grand Line?! That's so cool! Tell me about it!" Luffy shouted.

"Sure," she said. She wondered about how they would be able to get a bigger boat since Nami obviously wasn't going to share her treasure and Iris' savings that she brought wouldn't be even close to what they'd need for a good quality boat. They were pirates, so maybe they would steal a boat. That was something that seemed okay for a pirate to do. Pirates were kind of known for stealing things, and not just treasure. She decided not to think about it now and instead started telling Luffy stories she had heard her father tell about the Grand Line.

It took just under two days before the reached the island. They ate the fruit that Luffy and Nami had gotten at the island they stopped at, and fish that Iris would catch. When she would get restless she would jump out of the boat and swim alongside the boat. Zoro slept most of the time as his wounds healed, and Nami was more talkative towards them than she had been at first. It wasn't a bad two days, but it would definitely be easier to travel in a larger boat. She hoped they would find a boat large enough that she could practice martial arts in. She was used to practicing everyday, but she wasn't able to practice all these past few days on that cramped little boat.

When they got to the island the others were all very glad to be out of the boat. Zoro seemed to be feeling completely fine, and she was amazed that his wound has healed up so quickly. Apparently he had been right about just needed to sleep it off; though Iris was still in awe that an injury that severe could be healed by sleeping.

"Hey guys, we're being watched," Zoro said as he pointed to a group of what looked like kids behind a log on a cliff side not too far away. There were screams from the people and three of the four ran off. The guy that was left staring at them stood up with his legs shaking badly. He was a skinny boy with black curly hair and darker skin than them. He looked younger than Luffy, and looked rather weak.

"I am the great pirate left in charge of guarding this village! I am the great Captain Usopp!"


	3. Chapter 3

Iris looked over the kid as the group walked up to him. This kid calling himself a pirate, let alone a captain, was laughable. There was no way that a kid quivering in his boots like that had ever been out to sea. Even if the kid had ambitions of becoming a pirate, he would have to get over his fears first. He would at least need to learn to hide his fear better than he was. She doubted the kid had any real ambition of becoming a pirate though. He probably had said that without thinking in a desperate attempt to make them leave the island.

"You had better watch out! I've got 80 million men underneath me! I'll send them all against you if you try to attack the village!" the boy shouted. Iris laughed at his statement and he tried to glare at her, though the glare didn't really come across because of the fear also being expressed on his face. She smirked in a manner that her sharp teeth were shown to him and his eyes widened further.

"Wow! That's so cool!" Luffy shouted looking rather impressed. Iris looked over to her captain and laughed at him too. He really was a simple minded boy if he would believe a lie like that. Even the most renowned pirates wouldn't have 80 million men under them, let alone some nameless kid from a small, remote village.

"80 million men against 4 people? That doesn't seem fair, now does it? Are you that terrified of us?" she asked in a condescending tone.

"You're lying. I'm thinking it's more like there are only 4 of you too, and three of them went running away scared," Nami said to him and he shouted something about having been caught. The shaking in his legs had now translated to his whole body. "See, you're even admitting to it," Nami laughed and the boy continued to freak out.

"You're funny! I like you!" Luffy said as he laughed. "I'm hungry, is there food in this village somewhere? What about a boat?" he asked the boy. The boy's expression said that he wasn't sure quite how to react to Luffy. Iris understood his confusion though; Luffy wasn't a typical pirate. He loved talking to other people, and he was a cheerful individual. He didn't exactly say "pirate" to people looking at and watching him.

"We're just here to get some supplies," Zoro said trying to reassure the boy they weren't going to attack the village. "And a boat! And a crew!" Luffy chimed in happily. The boy still looked suspicious of them. Iris wondered if this was the first time that he had seen pirates. There wasn't much to this little island and so more than likely pirates didn't bother stopping here.

"I'll take you into town, but don't try anything funny! If you do I'll sic my men on you! I'm a very prideful man and I don't take people doing things they shouldn't very well," he said as he pointed at them. He was still going to try and lie after they all knew he was a liar? Iris laughed at him again; perhaps the boy was a comedian. If he wasn't a comedian he should be!

They followed him into town and into a small restaurant. They sat down and ordered some food from the man working there. The boy formally introduced himself. "My name is Usopp, and I'm the great leader of the Usopp Pirates!" he proclaimed.

"Three small children and yourself don't count as a pirate crew. Especially when none of you have ever been out to sea," Iris responded plainly. He glared at her and she smirked back at him. He talked a big talk for being such a coward, but his words meant nothing. She couldn't stand liars and exaggerators. She preferred people that were honest and forthcoming like Luffy. Luffy seemed to be honest to a fault even.

"You said you were looking for a crew, right? What kind of crew members?" Usopp asked.

"Why? Do you know somebody who would want to join us?" Zoro asked.

"Well... If you let me be the captain, I'll join you!" Usopp said confidently. Iris couldn't believe he was able to say that with a straight face, let alone with confidence. He either thought they were awfully stupid, or he really thought he was that great. They all responded to him with a resounding no. He looked surprised that they would turn him down, and Iris rolled her eyes. This kid was really stupid. She even preferred Nami to this guy she thought.

"More food please!" Luffy shouted towards the guy working there. They sat there with the boy and found out more about him. Or at least they listened to him talk. Most of the things that came out of his mouth sounded more like far fetched lies. She could tell from the expressions of the people around that they were somewhat wary of the boy.

"Say, who lives up in that mansion? They probably have a lot of money. I bet they have a boat," Nami said as she pointed to a mansion up a hill through the window. Usopp looked at the mansion and quickly got up and ran out the door mumbling something about it being "that time again."

Zoro, Nami, and Iris all decided that Usopp was, to put it nicely, an odd individual. Luffy, on the other hand, thought Usopp was quite funny and he liked him. Iris had a feeling that Luffy was going to try and get Usopp to join their crew, and she wasn't crazy about that idea. What skills could that boy possibly have that would benefit them? She was trying to not judge the boy without knowing him, but she wasn't crazy about what she had seen about him. Liars weren't trustworthy people and she had no desire to sail with someone she didn't trust.

As they finished their meals three small kids came running in looking at the group of pirates. "We are the Usopp Pirates! Where is our captain?!" one of the kids demanded. One of the other kids said something about wondering if their captain had been eaten and Iris laughed loudly. Where would they come up with an idea like that? Did people actually teach their children that kind of crap?

"What did you pirates do with our captain?!" one of the kids yelled.

"Yummy! That was such a tasty meal!" Luffy said while ignoring the kids. The kids screamed and looked at Luffy in horror; they really thought that he had eaten Usopp. Nami and Iris made eye contact across the table and giggled together at the children. This was probably the first time these kids had come across pirates, though it's not as if they were an intimidating looking bunch.

"Give us our captain back! What did you do to him?!" the kids shouted.

"We ate him," Zoro said in a dark tone and smirked at the children. The children screamed even louder and glanced over to her. She flashed them a big, toothy grin that showed off her sharp teeth. They looked across to the table to Nami and screamed again. "Why are you screaming at me?!" she screamed back at them and the kids fell over in their terror.

Iris was now laughing so hard that her eyes were watering, and she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Nami was yelling at Zoro for telling the kids that they had eaten Usopp, and both Zoro and Luffy were laughing. As they sat there laughing Iris thought that perhaps she would actually fit in with these people. She was enjoying herself more than she had in years, and she was even letting some of her barriers down. She had generally hid her smile because of her sharp teeth, but she had shown her teeth multiple times today already without even thinking about it.

"Where are you kids going?" Iris asked the kids when she noticed they were back on their feet and trying to sneak out of the building. They looked at her with wide, scared eyes and stopped dead in their tracks. "Don't worry, we didn't eat your captain. He was too scrawny. We prefer to eat people with some more meat on their bones," she said and they didn't respond. They didn't believe that the group hadn't eaten their captain, and they were terrified of the people eating pirates in front of them.

"Don't tell them stuff like that! We don't eat people!" Nami said as she scolded Iris and tried to convince the kids they weren't cannibals. The kids looked at them with skepticism in their eyes and Iris, Luffy, and Zoro all erupted in laughter again. Nami glared at them all for thinking it was funny to convince the children that they ate other people.

"Seriously kids, we didn't eat him. He ran off just before you came in here. He said something about it being that time again, and he got up and ran out," Iris said trying to stop her laughing. Something she said clicked with the children, because the suspicion in their eyes faded away. They looked at each other knowingly and nodded. Iris raised an eyebrow in curiosity as to what she had sad that made the children believe her so suddenly.

The children explained to them that Usopp had gone up to the mansion to tell lies to the sick girl that lived there. When they questioned the children as to why he would do such a bad thing, the children explained about how he was actually doing a good thing for the girl. She had become sick, weak, and depressed after her parents had died and couldn't leave her mansion. Iris understood the depression that came with loosing a parent all to well. She also understood how debilitating the loneliness and depression was. She felt her heart start to ache for the girl.

"Are you alright?" Luffy asked and Iris realized that she had been staring off into space again. "Yeah," she said as she nodded her head. "I can sympathize with the girl, that's all. I'm glad that boy is able to help her feel better," she explained. Perhaps Usopp wasn't as bad as her first impression of him had led her to believe. "Is the girl getting better?" Iris asked and the children nodded yes.

"Alright! Then let's go ask her for a boat!" Luffy shouted. Nami yelled something back at him, but he was already up and heading for the door. Zoro and Iris got up and followed Luffy out the door with Nami following along disapprovingly. "What the problem, Nami? The worst that can happen is the girl will say no to Luffy's request?" Iris asked her.

"She's sick! We should let her be," Nami retorted.

"So? If she's so sick and weak that she can't leave the house, then she doesn't need her boat. And it's not like she has to give it to us because we ask," Iris reiterated. Nami still didn't agree with Iris, but she stopped voicing her disagreement at least. Iris looked over to Zoro who hadn't said anything since they had left the restaurant. She couldn't tell what he was thinking from his facial expression, but he was following their captain without outwardly disagreeing.

They got to the gate to the mansion and Luffy started yelling hello trying to get somebody's attention to let them in. When nobody came to let him in he started climbing the gate instead. While Iris had no desire to climb over the gate herself, she also knew that the gatekeepers would not just let them in when they came back. Why should they let a group of unknown people in?

"Luffy get back down here!" Nami shouted. "Is he seriously just going to go in like that?" she asked Iris and Zoro as she turned to them. Iris shrugged and bit her tongue. She felt like reacting with a sarcastic remark, but decided to hold it in. On the off chance that Nami decided to join them after all, Iris knew that she should try to at least be nice enough to Nami. Nami had started to warm up to them a bit since they had left Iris' hometown it seemed, and they really did need a navigator on their crew. Nami might be annoying, but she seemed to be knowledgeable with navigation. There was also Iris' suspicion that Nami was racist towards fishmen, but she didn't have enough evidence to come to a sound conclusion on the matter. So for now Iris would try and play nice with the girl.

"I think we can get in over here through the bushes easier," one of the kids said. Luffy was already over the gate, but the rest of them decided to follow the children. They followed the children to a spot where they could actually take out a part of the hedge. They all crawled through and found Luffy wandering around inside the yard. "Over here, Luffy," Zoro shouted at him.

"Where is Usopp? You kids said he would be here," Iris stated as she looked around for the boy. Now that she was up close to the house she could see how nice of a place it was. She had never seen such a large and nice place on her island before. This girl had to be loaded with cash to have a place like this. The yard was beautiful too. The grass was a deep green and was manicured perfectly. The hedges were all trimmed at 90 degree angles and the flowers were placed in the most aesthetically pleasing places. It was a very beautiful yard.

"Who are those people?" a delicate sounding female voice said. Iris looked to where the voice was coming from and saw a frail looking blonde girl. The girl was standing at a window in what looked like a nightgown and she was pretty. Right across from the girl Iris then noticed Usopp sitting on a tree limb. When he noticed them all standing there he shrieked and quickly scurried down the tree.

"Ahaha! They have heard of my great reputation and have come to join my pirate crew!" he laughed in a nervous tone as he ran over to them.

"Nope," said Luffy. "We've come to ask for a ship!" he shouted and the girl looked confused. Iris looked at the girl and felt her heart sink. She could tell from looking in the girl's eyes that there was a deep loneliness in her. Iris understood that pain very well. Even with other people around that loneliness didn't go away, because the people that could take it away were gone. Even if Usopp was able to alleviate it temporarily, it wouldn't go away until she was able to move on. Iris' motivation to move on with her life had been running her bar, and this girl still hadn't found that motivation. The loneliness didn't ever truly go away, but she would learn to deal with it. Iris wanted so badly to tell the girl that, but she knew she had no right to tell the girl how to live her life. At some point something would come to the girl that would reignite her spark to live.

"How dare you all just barge in here! You need to leave immediately!" Iris heard a very stern voice instruct. She turned around to see a tall and slender man walking towards them. She guessed that he was a butler of the mansion by the way he was dressed. The man looked somewhat familiar to her; perhaps he had come through her bar before. She couldn't think of any other reason that he would look familiar as she hadn't ever left her island before three days ago.

"We're looking for a ship!" Luffy said cheerfully as if he hadn't heard the man tell them to leave moments earlier. The man responded with a stern no as he glared at them. He then looked at Usopp. While the man's expression was plain enough, if anything stern looking, his eyes were filled with disgust as he looked at Usopp. The girl in the window tried to give some sort of explanation, but the butler quieted her and said he would talk to her later about the matter.

"You're Usopp, aren't you? I have heard about all of your lies from the villagers. You have quite the reputation," the butler stated.

"Oh, so you've heard of me then! You can call me Captain Usopp," Usopp said with pride.

"What is it you want? Why are you here?" the butler asked.

"Oh, I just came to see about a mole! Yeah, I heard there was a giant mole in this place!" Usopp responded.

"Go away now! The mistress of this mansion should not be associating with the likes of you. Not only are you a liar, you are the son of a filthy pirate!" the butler said to Usopp in an arrogant, and condescending tone. The mention of pirate piqued Iris' interest. She would never have guess that this cowardly kid would have been the son of a pirate. She looked back to Usopp and saw his eyes full of rage. It was a true, unadulterated rage in the boy's eyes and it surprised Iris to see such a raw emotion coming from the cowardly kid.

"Come on, kid. He's trying to get a reaction out of you. You're walking straight into the palm of his hand," she said hoping to calm him down. She could tell from the horrified look on the girl's face and her yelling at the butler to stop that the girl was in a panic. If he cared about this girl at all then he should be paying attention to how upset she was. The same went for that lousy butler.

"Filthy?! My father is a brave warrior of the sea and I am proud of him for following his dream of being a pirate!" Usopp shouted and Iris was taken aback somewhat. This cowardly kid was suddenly filled with enough rage to act this boldly? The butler continued to provoke Usopp and Usopp continued to give a reaction. The pirate was now verbally attacking Usopp because the son of a pirate must have bad blood running through him, and Usopp was continuing to grow more and more angry.

Finally when Usopp could take no more he threw a punch a the butler and hit him square in the jaw. She thought she saw the butler smirk as he fell to the ground and felt anger start to burn in her chest. This butler was saying awful things all while the mistress of the mansion was yelling at him to stop, and his goal had been to get Usopp to react exactly as Usopp had just done. When the man stood back up he continued to throw insults at Usopp and pirates in general.

Usopp went to punch the butler again, but this time Iris couldn't take it anymore. The girl in the mansion was on the verge of having a panic attack and Iris wasn't going to watch that happen. This girl was much more helpless than Iris had been when her father was taken away; Iris was a fighter. She always had been, and always would be. When she was upset about something it typically came out in aggression rather than sadness like this girl.

Iris couldn't watch this girl have a panic attack, and so she jumped in between Usopp and the butler and caught Usopp's fist. "Get out of my way!" he shouted at her and tried to pull his fist back, but she was gripping onto it too tightly for him to do so. He threw the other fist, but she caught that one as well.

"Can't you see that you're upsetting that girl?!" Iris shouted back at him. "You claim you come here to tell her stories and make her feel better, but now you making her feel worse. She's been up there yelling for you two to stop what you're doing and you have both ignored her. So what if this asshole is putting you and your father down? What do his words matter to you? Grow up," she growled.

She turned her head towards the butler and glared at him too. "And you... You should be ashamed of yourself! You are _her_ butler, and you are ignoring her orders. She has been ordering you to stop since the beginning of this, and you've flat out ignored her. If Usopp hadn't have hit you I would have. You should be thankful he hit you, because I can hit a whole hell of a lot harder than he can," she continued.

She felt Usopp's fists relax in her hands and she let go of him. She turned around and looked at the smirking butler. He must care very little for his employer to be able to still feel proud of himself for enraging Usopp like that. "Say one more insulting thing to him, or get that girl even one ounce more upset and you have to deal with me," she stated in a very controlled tone.

"Get out of here," the butler said as if he hadn't heard a thing she had just said. How could that girl not see that this butler didn't care for her well being? She assumed that he had been a butler on staff before her parents had died and so she kept him around because he was a reminder of them. Even so, he was an infuriating person.

"You don't have to tell me. I'm leaving on my own accord, and I won't be coming back," Usopp said angrily as he turned around to leave. She felt bad for the boy, and she knew that he was feeling a mixture of emotions but that was no excuse for his behavior. She figured that some of that anger was probably even being directed at her, but she knew that stopping the fight had been the right thing to do.

She glared at the butler again and then walked out of the yard and past the large gate that was now open. She looked for the boy, but she couldn't see him anywhere. When she felt she had walked far enough she stopped, sat down, and leaned against a fence railing that lined a dirt road. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to try and calm herself down.

"Why'd you jump in there like that?" she heard a man say and opened her eyes. Zoro was standing in front of her, and Nami and the children were walking up the dirt road towards her. Luffy wasn't with them, but she chose to answer Zoro's question rather than ask about Luffy.

"It wasn't for Usopp's sake, if that's what you're wanting to know. It was for the girl in the mansion. I lost my mom when I was young, and when my dad was taken by the navy I fell into a really dark place. I handled my depression in a different way than she is, but I know exactly how she feels. I couldn't stand by and watch her have a panic attack. I could see in her eyes she cared for the butler and Usopp, and the thought of something happening to either of them was bringing back memories of loosing her parents," she explained as she looked up into his eyes.

He sat down next to her and leaned against the railing too. "Oh. That makes sense then," he said as he closed his eyes. She didn't know if really understood her reasoning or not, but she was glad he didn't question it. Nami and the children had now joined them and Iris noticed that only two of the three children were with Nami.

"Where's Luffy?" Nami asked and Zoro explained that he had chased after Usopp. That was probably a good thing as Luffy was probably the only person who would be able to cheer the boy up. Something about Luffy's cheerful demeanor was contagious, even when he wasn't trying to cheer you up. She was definitely happier being around him than she had been in years, and she had no doubt it would help out Usopp too.

"You were so cool back there!" one of the kids said to her.

"Yeah! The way you stood up to the butler was awesome! I bet Miss Kaya thought you were cool too!" the other chimed in.

"I don't know about that. Where's the other kid?" she asked them.

"Huh? Oh... He probably ran off. He does that when he's scared or upset. He'll show back up eventually," one of the boys explained after looking around for the third kid.

Iris asked the kids if they knew where Usopp and Luffy had gone and they had a good idea. Apparently there was a cliff that overlooked the shore that Usopp went to when he was upset and they were pretty sure he would be there. Iris had a little more respect for the kid after seeing him get angry and stand up for himself to that butler. She still thought he was a cowardly, immature liar but at least he had was able to find courage if he was made angry enough.

Just then the other child came running towards them. "WAHH! There's a weird backwards man coming towards us!" he screamed as he ran. The children got into an argument about whether the child was lying or not, but then surely enough the backwards man came moonwalking towards them. That seemed like a rather inconvenient way of getting around to Iris.

As the man got closer she realized that she recognized this strange man. He had definitely come through her bar at some point and he was a pirate if she recalled right. She didn't remember this guy causing a problem in her hometown, and so hopefully he wasn't planning on causing a commotion here. She thought it would be best if she acted as though she had never met the guy before. The three kids with them would freak out if they knew the man was a pirate.

"Who are you calling weird?!" the man asked sounding greatly offended. The children pointed at him without hesitation and he looked completely shocked. "I'm not weird! I'm simply a hypnotist passing through here," he explained. His explanation did little to convince the group that he wasn't weird. She didn't know if it was a more common thing in more populated areas, but in a small village like this one or even her hometown it seemed like a rather strange thing.

"Well then show us!" the three children shouted in unison. He initially told them no, but gave in quickly and decided to show them. She wasn't really into the idea of hypnotism and doubted that it would work, but she looked away anyway on the off chance that it could possibly work. So instead she looked over to Zoro who was still sitting next to her with his eyes closed. She couldn't look at him without feeling somewhat flustered, and she hoped that she'd move past that feeling soon. She didn't like feeling like a school girl with her first real crush on a boy, but at the same time she was completely infatuated with the man. He was handsome, strong, loyal, and brave. At least she figured he was all those things from what she had observed so far.

She heard some thumps on the ground and was pulled out of her thoughts and back into reality. She looked to where the children and the hypnotist were and saw all four of them on the ground. Apparently the hypnotism had worked too well as he was sleeping as soundly as the children. "He seriously hypnotized himself too?" Zoro said in a somewhat annoyed tone.

Eventually all of them woke back up and the hypnotist moved along his way. "What a weirdo," Zoro said as the guy left and closed his eyes again. She wondered if he was tired because he was still recovering from the wound from the fight with Buggy, or if he was just bored. It would be completely normal to still be recovering from a wound like that, but he seemed to be moving around and acting fine. Maybe he was just good at hiding the pain as he recovered.

She looked over to the children who were gabbing away and then looked to Nami who had seated herself along the top railing on the fence. Nami was looking at her and wondered how long the girl had been staring at her like that. "Can I help you?" Iris snapped not even trying to hide the annoyance in her voice.

"Do you not like me?" Nami asked.

"You're a very loud girl, and reactive girl. You're willing to travel with us, but at the same time you're constantly making it clear that you are not one of us. I find it somewhat annoying..." Iris responded with a shrug, trying to have a more neutral tone than she had used just moments earlier. Iris obviously wasn't doing a good job of hiding her distaste for the girl, even though she had decided earlier that she should try and be nice to Nami. Apparently her acting skills had some room for improvement.

"Oh. Well can I ask you a question?" Nami asked and Iris shrugged. If Nami cared that Iris had just called her annoying she wasn't letting it show at all. Perhaps Nami was trying to prove she wasn't reactive like Iris had just said, or maybe the girl didn't care what others thought of her. "Why did you decide to come travel with these people that you don't know? I mean... What if they had been worse people that they seem to be? I'm at least in my own boat and can go my own way if I don't like them. And if your dad was arrested for being a pirate, then you should know how dangerous it is to be a pirate! Wouldn't it have been better to have let it be? I mean, your dad might not even be alive still..." Nami said.

"Stop! Don't talk like that," Iris growled at Nami. Sure, in the back of her brain she had always know that was a possibility, but she was pushing forward under the hope that he was still alive and just imprisoned somewhere. Even if he was in Impel Down, there should still be the chance that he had survived. He hadn't done anything bad enough to warrant execution.

"I'm going to rescue him. I will absolutely see him again, and I'm going to take down the navy along the way. As to why I came when Luffy asked me to, it's simple really. I trusted him. I don't know why, but something in me told me that I could trust him. I struggled with the decision after I had made it a little, but it wasn't for fear that these people would try to harm me. And I don't care that it's dangerous to be a pirate; I'm proud to be following in my father's footsteps. He might not like it if he knew I was throwing myself into a dangerous path, but I'm not really concerned about that right now," Iris explained.

"Oh," was all that Nami responded with. Iris didn't know if her answer satisfied Nami or not, but she didn't really care. Then suddenly Usopp came running through in a panic. He ran by them without so much as slowing down or even noticing them. He looked like he was running towards the mansion and she wondered what was going on. He had just said he wouldn't ever go back to the mansion again, but now he was running there like a mad person.

"I wonder what his problem is," Iris wondered aloud.

"That's not good. He looked really upset. Something must have happened at the shore," one of the kids said.

"We should go find Luffy. You kids show us where the shore is," Zoro instructed and the kids nodded their heads. They all walked to the shore where the kids said Usopp would be and found nobody there. They stood along the cliff side that overlooked the ocean and looked around, but still nobody was there. "Is that him down there?!" one of the kids shrieked and Iris looked down. Sure enough Luffy was down there with his body in a crumpled up position. Her eyes widened as she looked at him in disbelief. Even with being a rubber man she didn't know how he'd survive a fall like that. She felt her heart start to race and felt panic rising in her chest as she looked over the cliff's edge at him.

The kids quickly showed them to the path down to the shore and she ran down it and over to Luffy with Zoro and Nami not too far behind her. When she got there she heard snoring and let out a nervous laugh. He was seriously sleeping? How was he able to fall down off a cliff like that and then sleep? He was really a strange individual. "Hey, wake up," Zoro said and started poking Luffy with the sheath of his sword. She let out a sign of relief when he woke up. She was elated that he was still alive.

"Ahh, that was a good nap!" Luffy said as he stretched out his arms and yawned. The kids were looking at Luffy in horror as if they had just seen a ghost. "Where's Usopp?" Luffy asked as he looked around for the boy. Iris explained to him that they had seen Usopp run by in a panic a few minutes earlier.

"Ohh. Well that stupid butler. He's really a pirate who is trying to kill Kaya for her money!" Luffy stated.

"Huh?! I knew I didn't like him!" one of the kids shouted.

"We have to save her!" another kid shouted.

"Wait... You need to explain more," Nami said in a calmer tone that Iris would have expected. She wondered if Nami was trying to act in a more calm manner to prove Iris wrong by calling her reactive, or if this was merely a coincidence. Iris wouldn't hold her breath over the matter, but it would be nice if the girl wasn't so loud and overly emotional all the time.

"Well... We were sitting up there and that Butler and a weird guy showed up and started talking. I don't remember what the weird guy was calling him... Uhh... Kuro maybe? But they're going to kill the girl and take her money. He's a bad guy. Where'd Usopp go to?" Luffy said. The name Kuro registered with Iris and she remembered seeing the man come through her bar.

"I thought Kuro was executed a few years back?" Iris asked.

"That's what Usopp said too," Luffy said cheerfully. She didn't know how he could be so cheerful in this situation; that girl was in grave danger and Usopp probably wasn't safe either. Kuro was a well know pirate a few years back, and a very intelligent man. It was fairly big news in the East Blue when he was executed, and that was probably why she didn't recognize the butler as Kuro.

When Kuro and the Black Cat Pirates came through Orange Town they didn't cause too much of a scene, but everybody had been extremely wary of them. Captain Kuro had a reputation of being a cruel man, as well as extremely smart. She could now place the hypnotist as Kuro's right hand man. Realizing this left Iris with so many questions. Why would he have faked his execution to live as a Butler on this small island? Even if he was after Kaya's money it didn't make sense. People that had been captains rarely took orders from others well, let alone from a young girl for three years.

"We should help this village and that girl," Iris said. "That butler is Captain Kuro; I recognize him now. Him and his crew came through my town once to restock on supplies, and that man is no laughing matter. This village won't be able to handle this on their own. I should have recognized him earlier, but he was supposed to have been executed about three years ago..." she continued and let her voice trail off. She was now regretting not bringing up that she recognized the hypnotist as a pirate.

"Okay! Let's go find Usopp then!" Luffy declared as he stood up. They all walked back up from the shore and started walking towards the village. "Hey look, there he is!" Luffy said as he pointed up the road to a figure walking towards them. The figure was slumped over and walking in a defeated manner, and she could guess what had probably happened when he tried to warn the townsfolk and Kaya about the butler. Being a liar and story teller made people believe that your truths were nothing but stories as well.

"Hey! Captain!" the kids shouted. When Usopp looked over to them Iris could see that the boy was crying and she felt sorry for him, but unfortunately this was the consequences for his actions. Hopefully they would be able to stop Kuro before anything terrible happened to the village, but he was going to have to learn that being a liar was not a good thing to be.

"How are you still alive?!" Usopp shouted at Luffy when he noticed him. She couldn't blame the boy for being shocked that Luffy was alive; she had been surprised by that too. A normal person like Usopp wouldn't have been able to survive that fall, though Luffy was anything but normal. She realized that she kept comparing Luffy and Zoro to normal people, and that wasn't an even remotely good comparison. Every moment she was around them it was reinforced how completely extraordinary they were.

"I was just sleeping," Luffy explained as if that was a reasonable answer. "We're here to help you," he continued and the kids started going on about how they would have to warn the village and Miss Kaya about the pirates and her butler. At the mention of warning the other people on the island Usopp started laughing in a strange manner. It wasn't quite a nervous laugh, but at the same time it was obvious how unnerved the boy was.

"Pirates? Ha! I made all of that up! There are no pirates, and nobody is in danger!" Usopp said with a shaky voice. Iris wondered why the boy was lying now; Luffy had clearly heard the conversation between Kuro and the hypnotist and Iris had recognized them. Did he think that being in denial and burying his head in the sand would make the problem disappear?

The children were saddened and disappointed to hear Usopp say that he had lied about the whole thing. While the children enjoyed the lying and story telling, they didn't like this one. The three walked away and headed back to their homes. If only the children were able to see past this lie, though it wasn't is if the children would be able to do anything against the pirates. They were just ordinary children.

"Why'd you lie to them?" Nami asked Usopp and he looked down at the ground. He explained that because he had lied so much in the past that none of the villagers or Kaya believed him now. He then explained that he lied to the children to protect them. There was no reason to get the kids involved in a fight they would inevitably lose.

"Since I'm a liar, I'm going to make everything I said today a lie too. There will be no pirates that attack tomorrow. It will be another day, and nobody will be harmed. I'll fight them myself. I love this village... It's my home... Even if they shot at me and chased me with brooms..." he said as tears started flowing from his eyes.

Iris looked at him and surely enough his arm was bleeding. They had shot a kid like him? Sure, he was probably annoying and troublesome but who shoots a kid? That made her angry at the village; they should be looking out for their own and not harming them. She couldn't believe that anything he could have done would warrant being shot. They could have really hurt, or even killed him. A gun wasn't a toy to play around with.

"What about your family? Don't they believe you?" Iris asked.

"The only family I have is my dad, and he's a pirate I haven't seen since I was a kid. My mom died from an illness when I was a little kid. But Luffy says he knows my dad! He's part of the Red Haired Pirates! I'm going to fight these stupid pirates and prove to my dad that I'm a brave warrior of the sea too!" he declared with pride in his voice.

Usopp's dad was a part of Red Haired Shanks' crew? That meant that Usopp's dad was a very strong man; the Red Haired Pirates were known as one of the strongest pirate crews in the world and not just anybody could be strong enough to sail with them. She would never have thought that he could be related to such a strong crew, let alone have his father be part of it! She wondered if he had any sort of underlying potential that he had inherited from his father.

"That's pretty brave of you to decide to take on these pirates by yourself," Zoro said with a grin.

"Well, it's decided. I'm going to help you kick their butts," Luffy said.

"Well, I guess I have no choice then. I'll help too if these two are jumping into battle," Iris said. This would be the first time they fought as a pirate crew together, and there was no way she was going to let the boys handle it. She would show off her abilities to them and show Luffy how strong she was. Both Luffy and Zoro looked excited at the thought of a fight, and she had to admit she was kind of excited too. She would show off her fighting skills to them and be able to see how they worked as a team.

"Y-Y-Y-You guys are going to help me?" Usopp stammered as his eyes filled with tears. Zoro explained that they couldn't let some scared kid take on a pirate group by himself, and that he was itching to fight again. The expression on Usopp's face did a 180 and the gratefulness turned into anger. "I don't need your pity! I can do this by myself, just watch! I'm the great Captain Usopp!" he shouted with a shaky voice.

"We're not doing this out of pity. We want to help," Luffy said calmly.

"The pirates probably have treasure. I want their treasure," Nami chimed in.

"You're a good person. You're willing to face these pirates by yourself even though you have to know you can't win," Zoro responded.

"Just let us help. We're pirates; we don't help people because we pity them. If we're helping you it's because we want to. There's nothing more to it," Iris said and Luffy nodded along with her words. Again the boy's eyes filled with tears and the anger in his face melted away. The boy might have a lot of growing up to do, but he couldn't be too bad of a person with how much he cared for his village even after they had shot at him. He was worth helping she decided.

Usopp wiped the tears from his eyes and looked at each of them with a nervous smile. He was still obviously terrified, but his mind was made up that he would protect his village."Okay! Well, the pirates will be attacking at dawn. So we have all night to come up with a plan to stop them. Let's do this!" he shouted.


	4. Chapter 4

The group of three new pirates, a thief, and a liar sat around on the shore talking about how they would deal with the Black Cat Pirates when they showed up. Really, it was mostly the liar that was talking about plans. He was concerned about how to deal with the hostile pirates more so than the others in the group.

"Why aren't you all worried more? What abilities do you have?" Usopp the liar asked them.

"Cut," Zoro stated.

"Stretch," Luffy answered.

"Steal!" Nami said.

"Fight," Iris responded.

He looked at them as if they were all crazy. "Well I can hide really well!" he said nervously and turned around to walk away. They stopped the boy and informed him that he would not be allowed to hide; if he wanted to make sure his village was protected from the Black Cat Pirates he would have to fight too. He couldn't expect four people who had no ties to the village to fight for it on their own. If he didn't have the courage to stand up for his village then the fight was meaningless.

"I'm hungry! Let's eat before those pirates show up! Iris, go catch us some fish!" Luffy shouted happily.

"Let's make a fire so we can cook them this time... And we should get Usopp's arm bandaged up," Nami said. Iris agreed to go fishing while they got a fire going and fixed up Usopp's arm. She took took off her shoes and ran out into the ocean and dove under the waves. She again took off her gloves and stuck them in her bra so that she could swim freely. She swam around for awhile letting her body relax in the water.

She caught up with a small school of fish and grabbed onto a few and swam back to the shore. She could see that they had a fire started and tossed the fish onto the shore. "How many fish did you want, Luffy?" she asked and he told her a lot. His response of a lot wasn't really what she was looking for, but she nodded her head anyway and continued to go fishing. When she figured she had caught more than enough she got out of the water and walked back to the shore. She put her gloves and shoes back on and sat down on the sandy shore in front of the fire. There were fish cooking over the fire now and Usopp's arm was bandaged up.

Luffy ate until his belly was completely bloated and expanded and he fell asleep lying on the shore. Zoro fell asleep too, and it was just Iris, Nami, and Usopp that were sitting around the fire still awake. "You should probably get some sleep too," Iris said to Usopp and he shook his head. He was probably too nervous to sleep; he was just a kid on a small island that probably had never even gotten into a fist fight before.

"Why aren't you people nervous too?" he finally asked her.

"I dunno," she said with a shrug. "I guess I just don't think too much about it. If you overthink things too much it'll drive you crazy. If I overthink things now and get myself nervous I won't be able to fight well tomorrow... I've found it's best to fight on instinct rather than to think about it, and so I've just stopped thinking about those kind of things. And I've been in more fights than I can count up until now, though none to this degree, so I've got a good amount of experience to go along with all my training. Honestly, I'm kind of excited to fight alongside those two in the morning. They're something else," she continued.

She looked over to her sleeping captain and crew mate and felt a small smile creep across her lips; even though she wasn't nervous her adrenaline was pumping and she wasn't going to be able to sleep either. The fact that they were relaxed enough to be able to sleep amused her. She could hardly wait to see what they were capable of. She hoped that she wasn't building their abilities up too much in her mind, though she was fairly confident that she wasn't overestimating them too much.

"Have you guys fought together before?" Usopp asked and she shook her head no. She explained that Luffy and Zoro had fought together twice before, and that she had basically been a bystander in their fight against the Buggy Pirates. "What about you?" he asked as he looked at Nami. She quickly shut him down with telling him that she was a thief and not a pirate. He looked confused at Nami's response and looked back to Iris for an explanation.

"Don't worry about it. She doesn't like pirates, and so she won't identify as one of us even though she'll travel along with us," Iris said and Nami gave her a strange look. "What?" Iris asked her and Nami looked away from her without responding. The three sat around the fire in an awkward silence.

"How'd you learn to fish like that? You must be able to hold your breath a long time," Usopp said breaking the silence. Iris was glad that he had said something; she wasn't crazy about sitting in such a strange silence. "I learned from my dad. He was a pirate too, like your dad, and he is a great swimmer and fisher. He had me out in the water as long as I can remember," she said.

"Your dad was a pirate? He isn't anymore?" he asked. She explained to him that her dad had given up being a pirate after her mom had died to raise her, and then how 14 years later he had been arrested by the navy. She told him stories she had heard from her dad about being a pirate in the Grand Line and Usopp listened intently. She could see in his eyes that he was picturing his dad in the stories being a great pirate, and she was glad that she was able to help alleviate some of his nervousness for the moment.

"We should come up with a plan for dealing with the pirates! I'm going to be a brave warrior of the sea just like my dad and your dad!" Usopp suddenly stated. He started coming up with far fetched plans that they wouldn't be able to pull off even if they had the time and money for it. Some of his plans were ridiculous enough that all Iris and Nami could do was laugh at him.

He finally came up with an idea that he decided would work perfectly. He decided to spill oil along the path that led up from the shore to the village so that the pirates wouldn't be able to climb up the slope. Iris wasn't crazy about that idea though. If that oil were to get into the ocean it would cause a lot of problems for the animals and fish in the sea. The thought of it getting into her gills when she was out in the ocean gave her the chills.

"I don't think it's a great idea to be spilling oil like this so close to the water," she protested.

"Don't worry, it's not that much! It won't hurt anything," Usopp tried to reason with her.

"You do realize that if this gets into the sea that it could harm the animals there, right?" she asked.

"It won't get into the ocean!" he reassured her. She still disagreed with the plan, but she could see that he was going to do it anyway. He was overly confident that this would keep the pirates at a safe distance from him and that he'd be able to get them with his little slingshot. It might slow the pirates down a bit, but it wouldn't save him from a fight completely as he thought it would.

Nami then went back into town with Usopp to get some oil and Iris watched the last few sparks of the fire flicker. It was a peaceful morning and it was almost hard to believe that there could be pirates waiting off the shore waiting to attack. She figured she would be able to see the ship by now as dawn was approaching fast, but there was no ship in sight.

"Where'd the other two go?" she heard Zoro's voice say from behind her. She turned her head towards him and saw him sitting up groggily. "They went into the village for a little," she said and he mumbled that they had better show back up before dawn. He got up and walked over to where she was and sat down next to her and watched as the last spark of the fire flickered out with her.

She glanced over to the man sitting next to her and felt her heart skip a beat. He seemed so calm considering that they would be facing a large and notorious pirate crew and their ruthless leader. While she wasn't necessarily nervous she felt somewhat uneasy because of all the adrenaline she was trying to control. "Is your wound healed up completely?" she decided to ask him.

"Yeah, I think so. It's not hurting anymore, so I'm fine," he responded. That was amazing to her; his healing abilities had to be supernatural. Perhaps as she got stronger her body's healing abilities would improve as well, though she really didn't know how her body would react to a large wound like that as she hadn't had one before. If she was lucky she would avoid major injuries altogether and not have to worry about how her body would heal.

Nami and Usopp walked back over to them rolling a large barrel of oil and woke up Luffy. She had been enjoying the quiet and sitting next to Zoro, but she knew the quiet wouldn't last. Dawn as fast approaching and they would have to face the Black Cat Pirate soon. Usopp explained his oil plan to Luffy and Zoro, and Luffy thought it was an excellent plan. Iris still didn't agree with it, but she bit her tongue.

They followed Usopp about three quarters of the way up the path between the shore and the cliff and watched him pour the oil. It was a lot of oil, but it didn't seem to be enough to get back down to the shore and into the ocean. She was relieved to see that he was keeping his word and that this oil wouldn't reach the ocean. Iris looked up to the sky and could see the sun breaking over the horizon.

"Did they sleep in?" Luffy asked noticing the sun rising into the sky. There was still no ship anywhere to be seen on the sea in front of them. "Th-Th-They must have become scared when they heard I'd be fighting them! Yeah, that's it!" Usopp shouted nervously. It seemed that he thought if he shouted his words that people wouldn't hear the nervousness in his voice.

"Is it my imagination or can I hear some screaming?" Nami said and the other four listened intently. "No, I can definitely hear people yelling and screaming. Is there another place the pirates could be attacking from?" Nami asked looking at Usopp.

"AHH! They're at the north shore!" he yelled looking in shock.

"They're at another shore?! You were so positive they'd be at this one!" Zoro said angrily.

"Idiot!" Luffy shouted.

"They were talking at this one, so I assumed it would be at this one!" Usopp yelled with a tremor in his voice. "It's only a three minute run to the north shore, maybe we can make it in time..." he continued with a still trembling voice. Without hesitation Luffy took off running shouting something about how it would only take him 20 seconds to get there.

"Damn it! I'm slipping!" Nami yelled from behind Iris. She turned around in time to see Nami grabbing onto Zoro to try and prevent herself from sliding down the oil. He lost his balance however and started falling down the oil slick with her.

"What are you doing Nami?!" he screamed as Nami used his falling body as a mat to get over the oil with. She got to the dry, oil free ground above him and looked back at him. "Sorry, but my treasure is in danger. I've got to go save it!" she shouted and ran off.

"Need some help?" Iris asked Zoro who was now covered in oil and at the bottom of the path. His oil soaked shirt clung to his chest and abdomen area, and she had to get her mind out of the gutter. The definition of his muscles were extremely attractive, and this was accentuating them. She could practically feel a nose bleed coming on looking at him right now, and she instantly felt ridiculous. She thought it was only stupid perverted boys that had that happen to them, but apparently she was wrong as she was not a boy, stupid, or a pervert.

"Ugh! That stupid bitch! I'm going to kill her... No, I'll figure out a way to get back up. We don't need you slipping and falling down too. You go on ahead and make sure that Luffy made it to the north shore!" he shouted up at her. She took one more look at him and the turned around and ran to the north. She easily caught up to Nami and ran along with her.

"He's really mad, isn't he?" Nami asked her and Iris nodded her head. "Ehh... Oh well. He wouldn't have protected my treasure! We need to hurry!" Nami said. They continued running and after a few moments they could see Usopp standing at the top of the shore shouting something or another at the pirates. "Did I just hear him mention my treasure! That jerk! He's giving away my treasure! I'm going to kick his ass!" she shouted and picked up her pace.

Iris ran up with her and saw a very large group of pirates running up the shore. She watched as Nami beat Usopp with a long blue pole that she had assembled while they were running up to him. "How dare you give away my treasure you jerk! I worked hard to steal that from pirates and it's mine!" she shouted at him.

They continued arguing, though now their argument was about who would fight the pirates since neither Zoro or Luffy were here. Iris stepped in between them and the pirates who looked like they were getting impatient. "Shut it you two! It's your fault Zoro isn't here, Nami. Hopefully Luffy shows up soon, but until then we have to fight. Quit being such wimpy, whiny cowards," she snarled at them.

The pirates in front of her were looking at her in a condescending manner that immediately ticked her off. "You idiots obviously have a death wish," she growled as she took a fighting stance. One of them started rushing towards her with his sword drawn and she rolled her eyes. This guy had no idea who he was dealing with if he thought she was an ordinary girl.

He swung his sword at her and she ducked down to dodge it. She swung her foot around and knocked his feet out from under him and watched as he landed on his back with a thud. She then kicked him in the side hard enough to send him flying into the rocky wall that surrounded the path they were on. "That's a good idea!" she heard Nami exclaim from behind her and turned her head to see that there were now spikes all over the ground between Usopp and Nami and the pirates and Iris.

"Seriously?!" she yelled at them. She was dumbfounded at their actions; they did realize that they had just trapped her down with tall those pirates, right? It didn't really matter to her because she was planning on continuing to fight, but it pissed her off that they hadn't even given her any thought. She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the pirates before her. There were three of them walking towards her with their weapons in hand.

"Do you think three of you is all it will take to bring me down?" she laughed at them, and they started running at her. When one of them raised his sword to strike her she kicked the hilt and sent it flying out of the man's hands. She caught the sword and smirked at the other pirates. She hadn't used a sword before, but they didn't know that.

She used the sword to block the sword of one of the other pirates and kicked her foot out behind her and into the stomach of the pirate running at her from behind. He fell to his knees and it distracted the pirate who's sword she had been blocking. She readjusted her grip and used the hilt to hit the pirate on the forehead and knock him unconscious. The sword was heavier than she had expected and she didn't want to swing it indiscriminately because it would give away that she didn't know how to use it, so instead she would have to find a way to make it benefit her.

She continued to fight against the pirates coming at her and then heard a scream behind her. She dropped her sword and knocked over the largest pirate near her, grabbed him by the ankle and swung him around into the other pirates in the vicinity. She let go of the man she was holding onto and momentum that had built up sent him flying into the cliff wall. She looked behind to see that a pirate with a large hammer had hit Usopp in the head. He was bleeding and she winced a little; that looked really painful.

When she saw a man coming towards him with a sword she picked her sword back up and went running towards him. When the man saw her running towards him he picked up the pace to Usopp and she was afraid she wasn't going to make it in time, but Nami stepped in and blocked the sword with her pole. Iris felt a sense of relief wash over her that Usopp had been saved.

"You guys! Forget about them! We have to follow Captain Kuro's plans, or he'll kill us all! Have you forgotten how terrifying he can be?" the hypnotist yelled and the pirates all got horrified expressions on their faces. It was if they suddenly couldn't see Iris, Usopp, or Nami any longer and turned towards the village.

"NO!" shouted Usopp as he grabbed onto one of the pirates to try and hold him back. It wasn't working though, and he was just being drug along with the pirate. The pirates fear of Kuro was greater than anything else it seemed. Iris continued to fight, but she couldn't stop all of them by herself. There were just too many of them.

"Nami! How dare you shove me down like that!" Iris heard Zoro growl from behind her.

"Usopp, you jerk! You didn't tell me which way was north!" Luffy shouted.

"You guys are late!" Nami shouted back at them and Iris turned to see a very pissed off Zoro and Luffy finally coming up the the scene. The pirates that had made it past her were all on the ground now, and she safely made the assumption that Zoro and Luffy had dealt with them. She grinned as she looked up to them knowing that between the three of them they would be able to handle these pirates.

"Iris! You've taken down a lot of them, good job!" Luffy shouted as he stretched out his legs looking past her to the pirates that were still behind her. She smiled at his compliment, but knew that if she had been stronger then pirates wouldn't have gotten past her and Usopp wouldn't have been hurt. She had to get stronger so that things like that wouldn't happen in the future.

She noticed Zoro looking at the sword in her hand and knew what he was thinking. "I don't actually know how to use it... I've been improvising. Maybe you could teach me sometime?" she asked with a grin and his face turned slightly red. She cocked her head to the side wondering what she had said that caused him to turn red. He probably hadn't realized he was staring at her she decided.

"Yeah, probably... If you're serious about wanting to learn that is," he answered. "You two get out of here and let us handle this," he then instructed Nami and Usopp. They nodded in agreement and quickly started to leave. Now that she was going to fight alongside Luffy and Zoro Iris could hardly contain her excitement. Adrenaline was already coursing through her body from the fight she had staged against the pirates by herself, and she wasn't sure she could handle any more.

"Cap... tain... Please... Make us stronger..." she could hear the pirates beneath her gasping. Captain? Kuro wasn't here... Were they calling the hypnotist captain? This weirdo must have taken over as captain while Kuro has been on this island the past few years. This guy didn't appear to have what it takes to be a captain in Iris' opinion.

"Okay. One the count of one, two, Jango you will all become stronger and your wounds will heal," the hypnotist said as he pulled out his pendulum. That seemed impossible to Iris; you couldn't hypnotize somebody to become stronger and healed, could you? The best one could hope for would be for adrenaline to surge through their bodies and give them a false sense of strength and healing. That would be dangerous though. They were already wounded, and attacking on such a wounded body and being attacked could lead to permanent if not mortal damage.

The hypnotist swung his pendulum and recanted his charm and Iris watched intently. After a a few moments had gone by a new energy suddenly appeared in the Black Cat Pirates and their muscles began to bulge. Iris' eyes widened as she watched the scene unfold beneath her. There was no possible way that a hypnotist could actually make their muscles grow like that. It had to be adrenaline, but that would have to be a whole heck of a lot of adrenaline to cause that kind of reaction.

The pirates started going crazy and acting like wild animals. They were smashing their fists into the rocky walls surrounding them and howling. "YEAAAH!" she heard and turned to see Luffy screaming and pumped up. Her jaw dropped when she realized that he had been hypnotized, and then she started laughing. She couldn't believe that he had been hypnotized again. She probably shouldn't find the carelessness of her captain as funny as she did, but at least this could benefit them. Luffy was strong anyway, and if he was now hypnotized and having adrenaline pumping there was no telling what could happen.

"Luffy?" Iris uttered as he ran past her and started beating the crap out of the pirates. He didn't seem to notice her and started stretching his arms in a fast enough manner that it looked like he had many arms stretching out towards the pirates. "Gum Gum Gatling!" he yelled out as he continued his way down the path. This technique was something else; she wondered how many different techniques Luffy had for his Gum Gum abilities. The possibilities were probably endless.

As he continued running at the Black Cat Pirates and she watched in awe as he ran up to the bow of the boat and grabbed onto it. He started grunting and pulling at the bow as if he was trying to rip it off. Iris thought there was no way he'd be able to rip the bow off such a large boat, even with being hypnotized like he was. She was wrong though, and heard cracking as the bow started to rip away.

But unfortunately, Luffy was hypnotized yet again and fell asleep holding the bow. He fell down holding the enormous bow and still managed to take out a good number of the crew as it fell on them and crushed them. "AHH! HE'S DEAD!" she heard Usopp yell as the bow fell on top of Luffy. She snickered and knew exactly what Usopp was thinking and why, it was a reasonable response after all. Fortunately for them, what was reasonable for a normal person did not hold true for Luffy. She was still learning that too, but if falling off a cliff like he had done yesterday didn't kill him then this wouldn't either. He was a rubber man, and rubber was a very malleable product. It could stretch, bend, and flatten without damage being done. It was a useful ability to have.

"Why aren't you guys freaking out?! He's dead! Your captain is dead! We're all gonna die!" Usopp yelled in a panic.

"He's not dead. It'll take more than that to kill him, and I can handle it from here. Didn't I tell you two to get out of here? You'll just be in my way," Zoro stated. The same confidence he had had when he fought against the Buggy Pirates appeared in his eyes again as he started walking towards the hypnotist. It was a very sexy confidence, and he had the strength and skills to back up his confidence from what Iris had seen. She was glad that she was on the same side as him as he would be a scary enemy to have.

"What happened to our lovely ship?" voices could be heard saying from up on the ship. Suddenly two strange looking individuals appears near where the bow had been torn off. These two looked even stranger than the hypnotist. They jumped down off the ship and landed next to the hypnotist. One of them was skinny and had a sly look in his eyes, and the other was large and didn't look as though he possessed any sort of intelligence. All of the Black Cat Pirates seemed relieved to see them.

"Nyaban Brothers! Deal with these people for me! If Captain Kuro were to see this he would kill us all!" the hypnotist instructed them.

"Whaaa? But why us?" they cried.

"Just go! Sham, take care of them!" the hypnotist yelled.

"But I'm so scared!" the skinny guy cried. The two freaks had jumped off the ship with confidence and now were acting like bigger cowards than Usopp. Iris wasn't sure what to make of them, but she didn't think they were really scared. If they were really just big wimps, then the other pirates would not have suddenly become calm when they appeared.

Sham continued crying about how scared he was, and ran right past her to Zoro. That immediately ticked her off; did he think because she was a girl that she wasn't a threat? She wouldn't let anybody get away with treating her like she was less of anything because she was a girl. She had beat up every man that had tried to cross her so far, and she didn't plan to stop now. She would show him that she was a worthy opponent.

"If you don't stop, I'm going to cut you!" Zoro shouted at Sham. He couldn't see this was all an act? There was no way he was really that scared. Nami and Usopp seemed to be buying the scared act too though. When Sham got to Zoro he went for Zoro's swords and snatched two of them.

"HAHAHA! Idiot! Did you really think I was scared? The Nyaban brothers aren't cowards! It's just a trick to make you let your guard down!" Sham cackled as he threw Zoro's swords back to where the hypnotist and the other Nyaban brother was. His bragging was cut short however, when Iris' foot made impact with his head and sent him flying into the rocky wall.

"That was for ignoring me," she growled at him. He made his way back to his feet and looked at her in surprise. "Zoro isn't your only opponent here. You made a mistake by running past me," she continued. He still looked surprised and opened his mouth to respond to her, but the suddenly Zoro swung his sword at Sham.

"How dare you treat my swords like that!" Zoro yelled. It looked as if Zoro's sword made contact with Sham, but as Zoro lunged for his other two swords Sham suddenly was on his back and holding back his arms. Sham's shirt had been cut by Zoro, but because he was so skinny he managed to avoid direct contact with the sword. Iris was slightly impressed with how quickly Sham had moved to dodge Zoro's sword.

"Aw, did you think you cut me? Too bad for you I'm so thin! Buchi! Come get him!" Sham shouted as he slammed Zoro into the ground. Iris wasn't going to stand by idly and watch that happen though. She ran straight towards Sham and jumped onto the skinny man's back. She leaned back and used her weight to cause the man to lose balance and fall off of Zoro. She jumped off of him before he landed and stood between him and Zoro.

"I've already told you. Don't ignore me," she stated. She turned to look to where Zoro was and saw that he had dodged Buchi's attack. There was a large crack in the ground where Buchi had tried to get Zoro now, and it was quite impressive. Iris would not have thought the fat Buchi would have been able to do such a thing; there must be some serious muscle under all that fat. "Are you alright Zoro?" she asked.

He started to nod, but then his eyes widened. "Behind you Iris!" he yelled and she turned back just in time to see Sham charging at her. She ducked and somehow managed to dodge his attack. She jumped to the side a few paces away from him and he glared at her with piercing eyes.

"How dare you get in my way, little girl. This is twice you've interfered with me, and I'm not going to be able to over look it," he hissed at her.

"Idiot. I can handle a freak like you. I'm not your average 'little girl'," she retorted.

With that he came at her again attacking with the claw like blades on his gloves. He was continuously slashing at her and he was faster than she had anticipated him being. She ducked and dodges his attacks looking for an opening so that she could go on offensive, but his movements were so much faster than hers that it was difficult finding an opening she could take advantage of.

"HAHAHA. Stupid girl! You can now see the terrifying might of the Nyaban brothers!" he cackled. His comments only served to piss her off further, not intimidate her like he was trying to do. She decided to just go for it and lunged in towards his middle to get him off balance. She wrapped her arms around his waist and dug her nails into his back as she gripped onto him. She was about to throw him down onto the ground so she could pin him down, but he dug the claws on his gloves into her back. She let out a scream from the shock of the pain, but managed to still throw him on the ground.

She jumped on top of him and sat down on his waist, used her legs to pin down his legs, and put her hands on his wrists to make sure he wouldn't be able to attack her with the razors again. He struggled against her, but she was at an advantage in this situation. She knew how to pin people down so that they couldn't get back up, even if they were bigger and stronger than she was, from all of her martial arts training. He struggles against her as she moved his arms so that she could hold both of them back with one hand, but she won the struggle. She then used her free hand to punch him in the face, and then pressed her hand down on his neck. She dug her nails into the flesh of his neck, and watched as his face started to turn purple from the lack of air.

"Please! Have... mercy on me!" he managed to get out.

"Why would I have mercy on somebody like you?! Your crew was willing to attack a village of innocent people, and were going to kill an innocent girl. You don't deserve mercy!" she growled at him. He had no right to ask for mercy. There was no excuse for what the Black Cat Pirates were trying to do on this little island.

"Iris! Are you okay?!" she could hear Nami yelling at her. She knew that her back was bleeding from Sham digging his claws into her back, but her adrenaline was pumping and she could hardly feel the pain. "Yeah, I'm fine," she shouted back to Nami without taking her attention off of Sham. She was tempted to look and see how Zoro was doing, but she had learned her lesson moments ago about taking her attention off her enemy. She hadn't ever faced somebody so strong and fast, and she would have to be more careful than she was with the everyday average pirates that she had dealt with up until now.

Iris heard Nami scream and she reacted without thinking. She looked over to where the scream had come from and saw Nami holding onto her shoulder and blood coming out. Her grip on Sham must have loosened just enough because he was able to throw her off of him and she crashed into some rocks. She could feel pain surging through her entire body as she impacted into the rocks. Her body crumpled onto the ground, and her head was throbbing. She didn't think anything was broken, but the wind had been knocked out of her and she had hit her head in a way that made her worry that she could have a concussion.

When she had recaught her breath she made her way back to her feet. She touched the side of her head where it had hit the rock and winced when she felt blood. The spot was tender and hurt, but she would have to address it after the Black Cat Pirates had been dealt with and were longer a threat to the village. She looked over to Nami who was lying on the ground just out of reach of Zoro's swords; she must have been trying to get them back to Zoro.

Iris then looked over to Zoro who was struggling to maintain a defensive stance against both Sham and Buchi who were attacking him vigorously. She started to run towards him so that she could help, but stopped when she became dizzy. She regained her stability and wondered how much blood she had lost. She knew her head was bleeding from hitting a rock, and she knew her back was bleeding as well. She moved her hands to her back and was surprised by how wet her back was. She moved her hands back in front of herself again and looked at them; they were now covered in blood. She felt even more dizzy as she looked at the blood, but knew she needed to ignore the problem for now. She wiped her bloody hands on her pants and took a deep breath to regain her composure.

"Stay back Iris! I can handle them!" Zoro shouted. He was on the defensive and he was still watching out for her? He was probably trying to look out for all of them. Her theory was proved correct a few moments later when he took one of Usopp's slingshot bullets to the back. "Usopp! You idiot! Are you trying to get killed?!" he shouted as he glared at Usopp. Iris knew Usopp was just trying to help, but if the Nyaban brothers went after him there was nothing he could do against them.

The Nyaban brothers used Zoro's distraction to their advantage and slashed him with their claws. He fell for a moment, but made his way back to his feet quickly. He needed his other two swords, but he wasn't able to get to them.

Then suddenly, all of the Black Cat Pirates froze with looks of horror on their faces. "L-L-Look... I c-c-can explain..." the hypnotist stuttered as he took a few steps back. Iris followed his gaze up the path and saw Kuro. He was adjusting his glasses with the palm of his hand in a rather odd manner, but he looked completely enraged. He was glaring evilly at the hypnotist and the rest of the pirates.

"What the hell happened, Jango?! This isn't part of my plan!" he screamed at the shivering, and deathly silent pirates.


	5. Chapter 5

Iris watched on as Kuro stared down the hypnotist unsure of what to do. Would now be a good time to take down Kuro? He was distracted by the fact that his pirate crew had been held up, so perhaps a surprise attack would work. But, if that didn't work then they'd be having to deal with Kuro, the Nyaban brothers, and the hypnotist. Iris still wasn't sure what it was the hypnotist did other than hypnotize though; it could be useful but it seemed like a fairly limited ability.

"Really, I can explain!" the hypnotist said again nervously.

"I don't need any explanation. That fact that you have been held up by just a few kids shows how far the Black Cat Pirates have fallen since I left. You're pathetic, Jango," Kuro stated. His tone was very controlled and Iris could sense the immense anger that he was trying to conceal. How could that girl in the mansion not notice how awful of a person he truly was? Iris didn't think there was any way that he was able to conceal his true personality all of the time. She had seen a glimpse of what a terrible person he was in the yard yesterday herself, so perhaps the girl was just ignoring all the warning signs so that she wouldn't have to deal with it.

Iris could feel that she was still loosing blood and knew she needed to do something about the wound on her back. She was getting light headed, and she didn't want to pass out and be in the way. This fight was her chance to show Luffy that she was worthy to be on his crew. There weren't any bandages around, so to make due she pulled her tank top off and ripped it into a few lengthwise strips that she could wrap around her waist to put pressure on the wound and prevent her from loosing any more blood from there.

She started wrapping the shirt around herself and realized that normally she would be somewhat embarrassed by just being in her sports bra in front of other people, but now wasn't the time for that. It was more important to stop the bleeding than it was for her to worry about being covered up. She hoped that the wounds weren't deep enough to have hit any organs, but again, now wasn't the time to be worrying about things other than the fight in front of her.

When she had finished tying the shirt around her wounds she looked back up to see the Nyaban brothers getting into it with Kuro. From what she could hear they seemed upset over Kuro insulting Captain Jango. They started walking towards Kuro saying that they thought they could take him, but from the smug look on Kuro's face and the horrified look on Jango's face Iris gathered that the Nyaban brothers weren't a match for Kuro.

"You've been living a posh life here on this island. We've been out on the sea for the past three years getting stronger. There's no way you can beat us now," Sham declared. The two rushed at Kuro, but he suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind them. By the time they realized that Kuro was behind them and turned to look at him he had disappeared again. This time he reappeared right behind them and with blades pressed to their throats. He had on gloves with razor like claws like the Nyaban brothers, but his were longer and more like swords. Iris was in awe of how quickly and silently that Kuro had moved; she had never seen somebody move so fast and effortlessly.

"You've got five minutes to finish them. If you don't I will kill you all," Kuro smugly announced. The Nyaban brothers looked as if they were going to pee themselves, but agreed that they could do it in five minutes.

"We just need to get rid of those two," Sham said as he looked at Zoro and Iris. "I'll take her, and you can get rid of him. The other two can't do anything anyway," he continued. Iris braced herself to be ready for his attack. This wouldn't be an easy fight since she was woozy from all the blood loss, but she didn't have any other choice. It would be great if Luffy woke up right about now.

"Zoro! Here!" she heard Nami yell and looked to see Nami kicking Zoro's swords to him. He reached out and caught his swords while yelling at Nami for kicking them, but Iris could tell that he was immensely relieved to have his swords back. "I'm your opponent now," he said smugly as he looked at both of the Nyaban brothers.

"If you want to die first that's fine... I'll just deal with the girl afterward," Sham hissed and both Buchi and Sham ran towards Zoro. Zoro put one of his swords in his mouth and held the other two like he had when facing the Buggy Pirates, and he stood in what Iris thought was a strange stance as the Nyaban brothers ran towards him.

"Tiger Hunt!" he shouted as he slashed through the Nyaban brothers in an amazing show of swordsmanship. She felt her attraction to him grow yet agian as she watched him fight. It looked as if they were both defeated from Zoro's attack and Zoro's expression turned cocky as he turned to look at Kuro. "You're going to be the one dead within five minutes!" he stated. Kuro reached up and adjusted his glasses, and the odd manner in which he did so made sense now. With the cat claw gloves on he could only use the palms of his hands to adjust the glasses without cutting himself.

Iris thought this was now her chance to go wake Luffy up, but apparently Nami had also had that idea and Nami was closer to Luffy than Iris was. Nami ran and then Jango detached the round blade at the end of his pendulum and threw it at Nami. "NAMI!" Iris shouted as she ran towards the girl. Even if Iris didn't like Nami there was no way she was letting Nami die if she could help it.

Nami made it to Luffy before the blade made it to her, and she planted her boot in his face in an attempt to wake him up. She ran past Luffy a few paces, and Luffy pushed the bow off of himself and stood up. The blade landed straight in the back of Luffy's skull and there was an audible gasp from just about everybody there. Luffy reached back to the blade and pulled it out of his head and Iris felt a sense of relief wash over her. The back of his head was now bleeding, but somehow he was okay. If Luffy was now awake and able to fight, things were going to become a lot easier for them.

Iris continued running and ran straight for Jango. She jumped right before she got to him and kicked him straight in the chest. He fell over and she went over to him and put her foot on his chest while putting her weight on him. She dug her heel into his chest and he looked up at her in complete shock. "Like I was telling your buddy over there earlier," she growled as she pointed to Sham's crumpled up body, "Don't underestimate me. I'm not sure why you idiots seem to think that I'm a smaller threat than the boys that can be ignored, but you're wrong."

She then took her foot off his chest and kicked him in the side hard enough to at least break a few ribs. "Are you alright Luffy?" she asked as she turned to face her captain. He was rubbing his head and complaining about it hurting, but he seemed alright. Nami looked to be alright as well. She turned her attention back to Jango who was trying to get up. He was holding his side where she had kicked him probably trying to assess the damage that had been done.

He was looking in her direction and she knew that it would be harder to deal with him now. Even though he had some broken ribs he would now be on the offensive with her. She had caught him by surprise earlier, but with him being aware of her and with her injury things could be a little more tricky. She stood up straight and glared at him as she tried to hide the pain in her back and head.

"STOP THIS!" Iris heard a female voice yell and looked to see the girl from the mansion standing at the top of the path. Kaya looked frightened and shaken up. Iris could see that the girl was talking, but she couldn't make out what the girl was saying because of her weak voice. The girl and Kuro seemed to be in a conversation, all the while Usopp was yelling for Kaya to run away.

Kaya suddenly pulled out a gun and pointed it at Kuro. Her hands where trembling and she couldn't manage to hold the gun steady. Iris knew right away that the girl would not be able to shoor Kuro. Kuro was still her beloved butler even though she was having to face that he is and was always an evil pirate. Iris stood there watching, not sure how she should act. Everybody was distracted again, and now would be an ideal time to try and take down Jango or even Kuro.

Iris finally decided that she should wait. Perhaps things would take a turn for the better; Kaya could surprise her and actually shoot Kuro, or Kuro could have a hard time fighting against Kaya. His plan was that the Black Cat Pirates would kill her after all, perhaps that was because he couldn't bring himself to do it. She tried to listen in on their conversation, but she couldn't hear them. Usopp's concern didn't seem to be wavering, so she assumed that the tone of the conversation still wasn't good.

"This has all been for this day! I've been waiting patiently these three years, waiting on you hand and foot... All so that I can kill you today!" Kuro shouted. Kaya dropped the gun and Iris could imaging from the girls slumped over posture that the girl was probably crying and still in a state of denial that this was all really happening. With that Usopp jumped at Kuro.

"That idiot..." Iris mumbled as she watched on. What did Usopp think he could possibly do? Kuro got an evil expression and stood in a posture that fully showed off the ten blades on his cat paw gloves. "Oh that's right, I haven't thanked you properly for punching me the other day," Kuro cackled and right as Iris was about to run in and get in the way of Kuro's attack she saw Luffy's arm stretch past her. His hand made contact with Kuro's face and knocked the man flat onto his back.

As soon as Kuro was down the three children that followed Usopp around came onto the scene and started beating Kuro in the face with baseball bat, a shovel, and frying pan. Iris felt her eyes grow wide as she watched on in horror. What the hell were those children thinking? They were going to get themselves killed.

Those children and Kaya were going to get themselves killed by being here. Usopp and Nami really had no skills to help themselves fight off the pirates. There were too many people here that couldn't take care of themselves. The children and Nami could probably run off on their own, but Kaya was weak and shaken up, and Usopp was injured. Iris' mind was racing with what she should do; if they all stayed here they would just be in Luffy's way and probably end up getting killed.

When the children stopped beating Kuro they looked up looking quite proud of themselves. Usopp was yelling at them to leave, but they were adamant that they wouldn't leave as long as he was here fighting. Kuro stood back up and the kids screamed in fear, but he didn't look to them. He adjusted his glasses yet again and looked to Luffy. "Are you a devil fruit eater?" he asked.

"Yep! I ate the Gum Gum fruit!" Luffy responded with a grin. From the look on Luffy's face he was excited to get this fight with Kuro started. Kuro then instructed Jango to kill Kaya, and the kids. Without thinking about it Iris ran straight past Kuro, leaned into Kaya's waist, and threw the girl over her shoulder. "You three kids, come with me now!" she shouted over her shoulder as she ran. She had no idea where she was running to, or for how long she could keep running in this state, but if those kids could show her where to run into the forest perhaps she could keep all of them safe. The best case scenario would be the kids following her immediately, showing her a place for them and Kaya to hide, and her being able to fight Jango on her own.

"Wait! Let me go!" Kaya said in a panicked tone as she struggled against Iris.

"No way girlie. I let you down, you die. Simple as that," Iris said.

"But you're hurt! You shouldn't be carrying me!" Kaya protested.

"You're too sickly and weak to run on your own, so maybe now isn't the time to be worrying about me. Besides, Usopp is back there trying to protect you. Maybe you should be more appreciative of that," Iris responded. She could feel the frail girl stop struggling and felt some tears hitting her back. Iris resisted the urge to tell the girl to suck it up and grow up knowing it wouldn't help the situation. Iris slowed down her pace hoping that the children would catch up to her.

She finally heard footsteps running towards her and looked over her shoulder to see the children running towards her. "Captain gave us the very important task of protecting Kaya!" they shouted at her. Usopp might be a scardey cat and a liar, but he cared about these kids and was smart enough to give them a fake mission to get them to leave the battle scene. He had some okay qualities after all.

"Don't shout so loudly. If anybody is chasing after us they'll hear you. Where would be a good place around here to hide her and you three?" she asked them.

"What about you?" they asked her.

"Don't worry about me. My goal is to protect you all from the pirates, but if you're not hidden out of sight you'll be in my way," she said. They didn't seem crazy about her explanation and wanted to help her fight in some way, but they agreed to help her find a hiding spot. They pointed to a spot where the trees were thick and growing close together and decided they could hide there.

"Don't you dare move an inch from this spot unless I tell you to," she lectured Kaya and then she turned to the three boys. "You protect her, you hear me? If I'm having to worry about her then I won't be able to fight properly. I don't want any distractions," she sternly instructed and they nodded their heads.

Suddenly there were loud crashing noises and she saw trees one after another falling down. The trees all had a clean cut through their trunks from some sort of weapon. "Don't make a noise," she hissed to them as she walked out from behind the trees. Her back and head were still throbbing, but she wouldn't let that be revealed to whoever her pursuer was.

"You don't need to ruin this forest looking for me, I'm right here," she announced standing in a cleared out spot with her arms open wide to make herself as blatantly visible as possible. She noticed Jango coming towards her with a rather nasty snarl on his face. "I'll finish what I started with you earlier," she said arrogantly with a smirk. She didn't feel as confident as she sounded, but there was no way she'd let that show.

"I'm going to kill you along with the those stupid children and the girl," he growled.

"Just try," she laughed at him. He pulled out two round blades and she knew that she couldn't let him use them. If he were to cut the trees where Kaya and the children were it was game over. She ran at him and threw her foot up to kick him in the ribs where she had injured him earlier, but he caught her foot and grabbed onto it tight.

"I won't fall for that again," he growled at her. She jumped off the ground with her other foot and twisted her body to kick him in the head, but he caught that foot too. Since he had a firm grip on both her feet she bent over at the waist, put her hands on the ground and used her core strength to quickly pull him off the ground and ram his head into ground. He let go of her feet at the impact and she flipped around back onto her feet.

Her core section was now on fire. The attack to her back by Sham earlier must have tore up her muscles, because using her core muscles to throw him had been much more difficult and painful than it should have been. He started trying to stand back up, and she ran over to him and pinned him down to the ground. He was a lot stronger than she had imagined he would be; apparently his goofy appearance was deceiving.

He struggled against her and she wasn't sure how long she'd be able to keep him pinned down. She was in a weakened state from the injuries and blood loss, and she could feel her muscles giving in more every second. She rammed her knee into his side he screamed out in pain. His struggling stopped for a moment and she was able to readjust and tighten her grip on him. Even with some broken ribs he was noticeably stronger than Sham had been. There was no way she'd be able to pin down both of Jango's arms with one hand like she had with Sham.

When Iris suddenly heard some yelling approaching her and Jango she felt her heart sink. Those stupid children hadn't followed her instructions, and where was Kaya? They were supposed to be protecting her, and if they were running towards her and Jango they couldn't be watching Kaya.

"So that's where they were hiding..." Jango grumbled as he eyed the children. She could feel anger rising up in her and was trying to focus it into holding Jango down. "We're here to help you!" the children announced when they got to her and she couldn't contain her anger.

"You idiots! I didn't ask for your help! I only asked you for one thing, and that was to protect Kaya! If you're not with her, then you can't be protecting her! I'm not weak enough that I need help from children! Not to mention that you've given away where she's hiding at by running out in such a loud manner!" she screamed at them. They looked at her like they were going to cry, and she knew she feel bad for yelling at them for trying to help her, but she didn't. The only things she felt at that moment, other than pain, was anger.

Jango used her distraction with the children as his opportunity to throw her off of him. Her body crashed into a tree and a fresh pain surged throughout her body. She had never struggled so much in a fight her 21 years of living, and she had been in a lot of fights in those 21 years. But even though she was struggling she had no plans on losing the fight. She was strong willed, and that stubbornness would not let her back down from any fight. There was also the fact that she felt she needed to win the fight to win the respect of Luffy and Zoro.

She stood back up trying to take a deep breath and regain her composure, but she lost it again when she saw Kaya standing a few feet away from Jango. Did this girl have some sort of death wish? Not only had she shown up in front of Kuro and the Black Cat Pirates earlier, but now she was standing in front of Jango rather than trying to get away.

"I'll write the will if you let them go!" Kaya proclaimed. Iris was completely dumbfounded that Kaya would blurt out something that reckless; everybody was trying to protect her and this was how she acted? She had to have a strong death wish after all.

Jango started to walk to Kaya and so Iris ran at him and jumped on his back knocking him down to the ground. She sat on his back and punched the back of his head as hard as she could hoping to knock him unconscious. He stopped moving and she grabbed a handful of hair to pull his head back. His sunglasses were now busted and she could see that his eyes were still open, but barely. She let go of his hair and his head plopped back onto the ground and continued sitting on his back. He had stopped struggling and she assumed that he would lose consciousness any moment.

"Why did you come out of hiding?" Iris growled as she glared at Kaya.

"I... I just wanted to help... I didn't want the children to get hurt, and I didn't want you to get hurt further..." Kaya said quietly while fighting back tears. Iris was about to respond to Kaya telling her that wasn't a good enough excuse, but she heard some rustling in some trees nearby and quickly turned her head to look and see who it was. She couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her face when she saw it was Zoro and Usopp.

"The fight is over already?" Zoro asked as he looked at Jango and Iris nodded her head. "He was stronger than he looked though," she responded. Zoro, who was carrying Usopp on his back, set Usopp down onto the ground and walked over to her. He squatted down next to her and then took one his swords and hit Jango in the back of the head with the hilt of the sword as if to make sure Jango was really unconscious. "We should probably go check on Luffy," Zoro said and Iris nodded in agreement.

"You people should get medical treatment first," Kaya said, but Iris turned her down. "Probably, but I would really like to make sure that Luffy is alright," Iris responded. Zoro stood back up and extended his hand out to her to help pull her off of Jango. She stood up and immediately got woozy; she already knew she had lost a lot of blood and now that her adrenaline levels were winding back down to normal she was really feeling it.

"Are you gonna be able to make it to the shore?" Zoro asked her and she nodded, though she wasn't sure she would. "What are you going to do, Usopp?" Zoro asked and Usopp told them that he would stay with Kaya and the kids for a bit and then make sure that Kaya got home safe. Iris started to walk towards the shoreline with Zoro, but she was having a hard time walking in a straight line or at any sort of decent pace.

"Sorry... I think I overdid it a little. You can go on ahead and I'll make it there eventually," Iris said knowing that Zoro was worried about Luffy.

"Nah, you're in no shape to be walking by yourself," he responded and had her put her arm over his shoulder so that he could bear some of her weight. "Are you alright?" he asked her as she started breathing harder. She nodded her head yes, though she wasn't feeling alright at all. Her vision was starting to black out, but she would try to push on anyway.

Suddenly her legs started to buckle underneath her and she felt her body giving out and becoming dead weight. This was bad... She wasn't going to make it back to the shore after all. "Hey, Iris! What's wrong?! Iris! Hey!" she heard Zoro shouting at her as her body fell to the ground, her vision completely blacked out, and her consciousness faded.

When she woke up she felt like she had been hit by a train; her head was pounding and her body hurt all over. "Oh good, you're awake," she heard and realized that she was lying down with her head resting on somebody's lap. She had no idea where she was, no idea how she got there, or who's lap she was resting on. She felt a sense of panic set in but it turned into a completely different emotion, and she felt her face turn red when she realized from the pants and boots that it was Zoro's lap. She tried to push herself up and her entire mid section felt like it was on fire so she put her head back down.

"Don't push yourself," she heard and noticed Luffy lying on the sand in front of her. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. From the surroundings should tell that she was back on the path between the shore and the cliff. In front of her she could see Luffy and Nami, which meant that they were safe. She could hear Zoro snoring and knew that he was resting. There weren't any of the Black Cat Pirates around that she could see or hear, which most likely meant that Luffy had beaten Kuro.

"You won? Against Kuro?" she asked.

"You mean the evil butler guy? Yep! There was no way I was giving into some jerk that thought being a pirate was too tough!" he said triumphantly. Iris laughed to herself at his response; Luffy made it sound so easy. While she hadn't seen the fight she knew it couldn't have been easy.

Now that the panic of not knowing where she was had passed she could see that Luffy was quite cut up too. He was lying stretched out on the sand with a happy look on his face, but she guessed that he was exhausted and hurt too. Nami was sitting next to Luffy with a grin on her face as she hugged her bag of treasure tightly.

This was good; they had won against Kuro and the Black Cat Pirates. That was not an easy feat. They had all taken injuries, but they had still won. This gave Iris hope for her and her new friends. If they could handle this, then they just might make it out on the sea. She knew she would have to continually grow stronger, but this gave her more confidence in their abilities as well as her own. She had fought as hard as she could, and she had come out on top.

"Man... I'm hungry..." Luffy whined.

"You still can't move yet," Nami retorted.

"Well... Then we need to eat as soon as we can all move," he said.

Iris closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the sun on her skin, and the softness of the sand underneath her. She was still somewhat embarrassed to be having her head resting on Zoro's lap, but at the same time she wasn't unhappy about the situation. He had most likely carried her here after she passed out, and was letting her sleep on him. She decided that meant that he at least cared a little about her well being, and that gave her comfort. He might not be attracted to her like she was to him, but she would take this as a positive step.

When Iris heard a voice trying to get her attention she realized that she had fallen asleep; though at least this time she hadn't passed out. She opened her eyes to see Luffy squatted down in front of her. "Iris, Nami says we need to get your back bandaged up before we go get some food," he said.

"Luffy you idiot! We don't even know if she can walk alright yet! I told you not to bug her!" Nami shouted at him.

"I think I'm fine..." Iris replied and pushed herself up. The muscles in her torso still hurt like crazy, but she was able to sit okay enough. She unwrapped the strips of her shirt that she had tied around herself and made a grossed out face when she saw just how soaked in blood then were.

"You're going to need a new shirt..." Nami said.

"I've got one in my bag in the boat," Iris replied and made her way to her feet. She felt unsteady, but she wasn't going to show them that. She wanted to be strong like they were. She walked slowly down to the boat and opened up her bag. She saw that in her bag was only her clothes that she had brought, which meant that the extra foood, her money, and her alcohol had been stolen. She made an unhappy grunt as she pulled out a grey v-necked t-shirt and threw the bag back down at into the bottom of the boat. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath trying to not become too enraged about her stolen belongings.

She turned back around to walk back up to where the others were, but was stopped by Nami who was standing right behind her holding a roll of bandages. Nami was smiling at her, though it was a forced and uncomfortable smile. Iris couldn't help but think that Nami was still being cautious about her because she suspected Iris was a fishman. Iris could still recall the look on Nami's face when she had mentioned aquatic martial arts, and she was fairly certain that the girl knew what she was talking about even if she hadn't said so.

"Let me help you," Nami said and Iris's body tensed up. "It's not like I'm going to hurt you... But if your injury doesn't get wrapped up right it isn't going to heal, and you don't want that wound to reopen. I don't think the boys would do a good job, so just let me help," Nami continued.

"You want to help me?" Iris asked skeptically.

"Why not? You fought hard to protect that village, that rich girl, and us. I can appreciate that even if you're choosing to be a pirate. Now put your arms up if you can so that I can wrap this around you easier," Nami replied.

Iris did what Nami asked and put her arms up. It hurt to do hold her arms up with how torn up her muscles were, but she bit her tongue and didn't complain. Nami wrapped the bandage around Iris' torso and then tied them tight when she was done. Iris had to admit that the bandages felt much better than the strips of her shirt had. She slid her t-shirt on over the bandages and pulled her hair of the ponytail. She stuck her hand in the water and rubbed some wateragainst her head to get the blood out of her hair. She winced as the salt water touched the wound as it stung like crazy, but made sure to get all the blood out of her hair. The villagers would probably have questions if she was walking around with an big bloody spot on her head.

"You've got really long hair... It's pretty," Nami said and Iris felt her face turn red. It felt strange getting a compliment from a girl that was so wary of her. But then Iris realized that she hadn't let her hair down since she had met them a few days ago. Her hair looked long enough in a pony tail, but when her almost straight purple almost white hair was down it was much more apparent that it was so long. Iris actually really liked her hair; it made her feel feminine when she wasn't an overly feminine girl.

"Thanks. And thanks for dressing my injury," Iris replied and they walked back up to where the boys were. Zoro was now awake and talking with Luffy when they got up to them. They were laughing about something or another and it made Iris happy to see them smiling and laughing as if there hadn't just been a big battle here a few hours earlier. The carefree atmosphere that seemed to follow Luffy was contagious and made Iris feel at home.

"Oh, you're feeling better?" Zoro asked when he noticed her walking towards them and she nodded. Luffy shouted about wanting to go eat now and started waltzing towards the village. "Well that's good. You were in pretty bad shape a few hours ago, so you must have just needed to rest for awhile," he stated and started following Luffy.

Truth be told she still felt like crap, but she was going to push on. Both he and Luffy had also taken some fairly big injuries and seemed to be doing just fine. She wasn't feeling so light headed any more, so at least she didn't have to worry about passing out on the way to get food. She could force herself to look past the pain in her back and head, but fainting was a different matter... She had no control over that and couldn't work past that.

When they all arrived at the restaurant the found a booth and sat down. Luffy ordered a large portion of food the second they sat down, and the rest of them ordered food as well. Iris wasn't terribly hungry, but she knew she should eat with how exciting her morning had been. She knew she would need to eat and sleep well to make sure that her body healed properly.

Their food came and they sat eating while Luffy talked about his fight with Kuro and how he couldn't believe that the wimpy Black Cat Pirates were so afraid of a man who didn't even like being a pirate. He also went on to explain what he thought a pirate should be. A pirate should love to be at sea, not care if the navy or bounty hunters were after them, and be loyal to their comrades. There was also his goal in being a pirate that he would become the Pirate King.

Iris thought about his definition of a pirate and decided she fit them all. She loved the ocean and felt more comfortable in it than anywhere else, she hoped that the navy would come after them so that she could get information about where her dad was and cause them damage along the way, and she would always be loyal to her captain and the crew. She knew from what her dad had told her growing up that loyalty and trust were the most important things on a pirate crew; if there weren't those two things fights would break out and crews would split up.

Iris looked across the table and saw Nami looking at her quizzically. Iris wanted to ask the girl what her problem was now, but chose to ignore it instead. Being around this girl was trying on Iris' patience. Iris wasn't a patient person by nature; she tended to have a quick temper and deal with matters with her fists. She knew doing that with Nami would get her trouble though. Luffy seemed to think that Nami would join their crew and become their permanent navigator. Learning to trust Nami would probably prove a rather difficult task. Iris figured that it would go both ways though; Nami didn't seem to trust Iris either.

Luffy then asked Iris about her fight and wanted to know all about it. She recounted the details and his eyes lit up as he ate his food and listened to her. "Wow! You did great! I knew I made the right decision in asking you to join my crew!" he enthused with his mouth full. She was glad he still felt having her along was a good idea.

"Yeah, I was kind of disappointed when I showed up and she had already taken care of the hypnotist... I was hoping to get to fight more..." Zoro said with a laugh. She grinned taking his comment as a compliment. She had taken care of Jango before backup was able to get there, and the children and Kaya had all been safe. She felt she had a right to feel proud of herself for that accomplishment.

Luffy then decided that if Usopp wanted to travel with them he could. Luffy liked Usopp and thought he was funny. Iris had reservations about bringing the boy along, but she chose not to voice her concerns. He was a coward and a liar, but at the same time she had to give him kudos since he had given his all to protect Kaya and the villagers. Hopefully he wouldn't become dead weight that they would constantly have to look out for.

"Ohh! It's the girl from the mansion!" Luffy said changing the subject and waved at the entry of the cafe. Iris turned to see Kaya and another odd looking butler type guy. This one looked like he had sheep's wool on his head and the horns of a ram coming out of the wool. This one looked genuinely friendly though, unlike Kuro.

"Hello! I have something to talk to you all about," Kaya started. "You were looking for a boat, right? I have one you can have... It's my way of saying thank you for saving Usopp, the villagers, and me," she said happily. The girl looked very much different than the girl that Iris had seen a few hours ago. Kaya was now happy looking, and it seemed genuine. She was standing straighter and holding herself in a confident way. Iris was curious what it was that had motivated her to look past her depression so suddenly, but it probably didn't really matter. It was just good that she had moved out of her depression.

Luffy jumped up and ran over to the girl and thanked her in excitement. "Really?!" he shouted and she nodded her head yes. "Yahoo!" he continued shouting as he ran out the door. Kaya offered to pay for the meal and they thanked her. They walked out of the restaurant and Luffy was already out of sight. Hopefully he ran to the right spot...

"Oh, Iris! Usopp told me your name and I need to thank you properly. Thank you for saving those children and me from that awful hypnotist. I probably wouldn't be standing here right now if it wasn't for you. Are you sure I can't take you to see a doctor?" Kaya asked as she walked next to Iris.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I've got some clean bandages on, and that should do it for me," Iris explained, even though she still wasn't feeling fine. She didn't think that a doctor would do much more than bandage her up anyway, so it was pointless to go see one. Kaya started to protest and insist that Iris see a doctor, but Iris stopped her. "Seriously. I'm fine," she stated plainly.

They walked to rest of the way in silence and when they got to the boat Iris got a large grin on her face. This was a much better boat, and she imagined it should even be able to take them to the Grand Line. Luffy was already on the boat and sitting on the bow. The bow was a large sheep looking creature that looked like the butler with Kaya today. "This boat is amazing!" he shouted.

"This is the Going Merry! It's an older style, but it is a solid and dependable boat. We've stocked it up with everything you would need for your journey. I know you will enjoy traveling on the Going Merry!" the butler said cheerfully.

Iris, Zoro, and Nami climbed on board the boat. Iris looked around and was impressed with what she saw. The boat was sturdy and well built from what she could tell. It was large and would fit a crew nicely, and it was definitely a distinct looking boat.

"Thank you!" Iris called down to Kaya and her butler with a grateful smile on her face. She had had no idea how they were going to be able to afford a nice boat, and she never would have thought somebody would just given them one. She felt much more confident sailing the seas in a boat like this; though she would need to learn how to sail along the way.

Iris looked to the little island with a smile on her face. This little island had proved to be a worthwhile stop. As looked over the island from the boat to look over it once more she saw a large mass making its way towards the shore. She squinted trying to make out what it was and realized it was Usopp with a ridiculously large bag. She thought that he must have put every item he owned in that bag.

He got down to the shore and started making his way towards the little boat that they had travelled here on saying something about how he was leaving now, going to be come a brave warrior of the sea, and that maybe they'd meet up again somewhere.

"Hey brave warrior of the sea... Can you toss me my bag from that boat?" she called out when she remember that she had left her bag down in the boat he was trying to climb in. He looked at the bag and then picked it up and tossed it to her. She reached out over the railing on the boat to catch her bag. Reaching out and stretching out her muscles caused a sharp pain to run through her torso, but she did her best to hide that. "Thanks kid," she said after catching the bag. There was only spare clothes in the bag now, which still made her angry, but at least she had extra clothes if she needed them.

"Hey... Usopp, why are you getting in that little boat?" Luffy asked.

"I don't have a boat... And I figured you guys wouldn't need this one anymore..." Usopp replied.

"Nah, we don't need it... But I thought we were comrades now..." Luffy said and Usopp's eyes lit up. Iris thought the boy would probably start crying any moment.

"Come on Usopp, or we'll leave you behind," Zoro chimed in.

"If you're waiting for a formal invitation this is probably as close as you'll get," Iris said and tears of joy started pouring out of his eyes. She might not think he was pirate material, but if her captain was going to have him join then she had no choice but to accept it. She made up her mind that she would try and start things off on a better foot with him than she had with Nami, so she wouldn't show to him her reservations about him.

"I get to be captain, right?!" he finally responded and they all shut him down in unison with a strong no. He seemed happy to come aboard anyway and climbed up with his giant bag.

Once he was on and had set his bag down she walked over to him and gave him a strong handed pat on the back. "Welcome to the crew," she said. He let out a yelp but didn't complain too much about the force she used in the pat on the back.

They all said their goodbyes to Kaya and her butler and then pulled up the anchor. Usopp continued to yell goodbye to Kaya and promise he'd come back with stories until she was out of sight. Luffy was sitting on the ship's bow with a huge smile plastered across his face, Zoro was already sitting down against the side of the boat asleep, and Nami was exploring the rooms on the boat.

Iris walked to the front of the boat and stood against the railing letting the wind rush through her hair. For a moment she was able to forget about how much pain she was in as she stared out across the sea. After defeating the Black Cat Pirates and Kuro along with Luffy and Zoro, and having a real boat she now felt like a real pirate and she couldn't be happier.


	6. Chapter 6

Staring out at the sea from their new boat Iris couldn't stop a smile from appearing on her face. Things seemed to be turning out well for them so far. They now had a boat that would be able to carry them across the seas, they were stocked with supplies, they had defeated another pirate group, and everybody seemed to be in high spirits.

Iris decided that she would go look around the ship while her pain level was still manageable; she knew that soon enough she'd come down off the high from receiving such a wonderful gift from Kaya and her pain would become more noticeable again. She walked away from the front of the boat and walked into the first room she saw.

The room was common area and kitchen. There was a big table and chairs, a fridge stocked full of food, a cooking area, and plenty of barrels of fresh water for them. She continued exploring and found two sleeping areas, one for the boys and one for the girls she guessed, a bathroom, a cannon room, and a storage room. None of the rooms were terribly large other than the common area/kitchen, but it would more than make due. Her biggest reservation with the set up would be that she and Nami would more than likely be sharing a room. Iris wasn't crazy about that thought, but perhaps it would give them a chance to get to know and understand each other better.

She walked back out onto the main deck to see Luffy furiously painting away on a flag with Zoro, Nami, and Usopp looking on with concerned expressions. "Ta-da!" Luffy shouted as he presented his flag and Iris couldn't contain her laughter. It was a scribbly mess that she assumed was supposed to be a skull and crossbones with a straw hat on it. His artistic abilities were lacking to say the least.

"Uh... What is that supposed to be?" Zoro asked.

"Isn't it great?!" Luffy asked with a big toothy smile on his face. Iris walked over to where they all were and tried to hide her amusement at the captain's drawing skills, but she was having a hard time. Thankfully she was in good company as the other three were questioning his abilities as well.

"How about I try?" Usopp asked and Luffy handed over the flag and paint. Usopp went to work and a few minutes later showed a design that was completely different than the original. The design he came up would have been fitting if he were the captain, but unfortunately for him it wasn't what they would allow their symbol to be.

"Aww, come on guys! This is great!" Usopp pleaded and they all told him to try again. He pouted for a moment but then went back to work and finally came up with a design that they were all happy with. It looked like what Luffy's design was trying to be. It was a simple skull and crossbones, but with a straw hat on it. It was the perfect design. It was a good, and simple enough, design and Iris thought it would make a good tattoo. She had always planned on getting another tattoo, but hadn't ever figured out what what she would put on her body that would mean as much to her as the tiger shark on her arm. Assuming things went well for them and she continued to sail with them the symbol would be a meaningful tattoo.

"That's not half bad, kid," Iris said as she looked over the flag and he beamed with pride.

"I want the sail done too!" Luffy shouted. Nami and Usopp went to work on the sail and Iris walked back into the common area by the kitchen. She sat down on the couch and rested her head back against the wall. Her head was throbbing again and her back was burning. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and it felt like the muscles in her back were continuing to tear more with each breath. Though perhaps she would be able to get some rest now and her back might start healing.

Suddenly there was a loud boom and Iris jumped up off the couch. She rushed out the from the room she was in and saw Luffy standing at a cannon. "What are you doing?" she asked somewhat annoyed.

"He was testing out the cannon..." Zoro responded.

"It's not shooting where I want to go... I don't think it works right..." Luffy said.

"Step aside! Let me show you how it's done!" Usopp boasted. He walked proudly up to the cannon and Iris stood with her arms crossed over her chest watching skeptically. There was no way that Usopp had shot a cannon before, and cannons were a much bigger beast than a flimsy slingshot. He adjusted the cannon slightly and then fired the cannon at a rock formation sticking out of the ocean and hit his target dead on. Iris felt her jaw draw in complete disbelief that Usopp had actually hit his target.

"Have you ever shot a cannon before?" she asked him. She still couldn't imagine a circumstance in which this boy from a little village who had never been to sea could have shot a cannon, but how else would he have been able to do that? There was no plausible explanation either way she looked at it.

"Nope! I'm just that great and talented! You can all bow down before the great Usopp and make me your captain!" he stated proudly. Iris rolled her eyes and her being impressed with him turned into annoyance. His talent was not enough to make a fitting captain no matter how many times he would bring it up.

"I've decided! You can be our sniper!" Luffy declared. Usopp started to go on about taking over for Luffy if Luffy ever decided he didn't want to be a captain, but Iris decided to go back into the kitchen and sit back down on the couch. She closed her eyes, but sure enough Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, and Nami came into the room too. The quiet she was hoping for so that she could rest apparently wasn't going to happen at that moment.

"Why are you hiding out in here?" Nami asked.

"I'm tired, and there's a nice couch in here to relax on," Iris answered trying to hide the annoyance in her voice. There was a little too much attitude in Nami's tone and Iris wasn't sure how long she would be able to handle it, especially since they were on the same ship together now and there really wasn't a way to get completely away from the girl.

"I think we need at least one more important crew member before we go to the Grand Line..." Luffy suddenly stated as he looked around the kitchen. Everybody seemed to agree with him, and Nami offered to cook if they paid her. A good cook would definitely be an important crew member to have with them, especially with how Luffy always seemed to be hungry. Iris knew how to cook simple meals; she had been cooking for herself for years and before her dad had been taken by the navy she would try and cook for the both of them. She had never cooked for a group of people though, and her recipe arsenal didn't include a whole lot.

"We need a musician!" Luffy stated after having ignoring their comments about finding a cook.

"Are you stupid?" Nami shouted.

"Why would need a musician?" Zoro asked.

"Luffy... We can find a musician later... There are more important positions to fill first..." Iris said holding her head in her hands. The shouting in the room was making her head hurt worse and she was trying her best to not yell at them all to just shut up for awhile. She resisted the urge though knowing that everybody in this room had taken injuries in that battle, not just her.

"COME OUT HERE NOW YOU DAMNED PIRATES!" an angry voice shouted suddenly and Iris shot straight up. There hadn't been any other boats on the horizon moments earlier and now there was somebody on their boat? Had there been a stowaway hiding somewhere?

Luffy ran out of the room and the door shut behind him. Nami and Usopp ran over to the wall and stared out the window watching whatever was happening outside. The unwelcome visitor was continuing to shout and from the banging around that she could hear it was obvious that Luffy and the intruder were fighting.

"How many are out there?" Zoro asked and both Nami and Usopp responded that it was just one person. Iris walked over to the wall and looked out the other window and saw a guy with a tattoo on his face and dark hair out there with a rectangular sword. The intruder didn't look very strong, though Nami and Usopp were cowering in fear. They would need to learn to be a bit braver if they were going to continue sailing the sea.

Iris watched as Luffy grabbed onto the intruder and threw him against the wall and the intruder stopped fighting back. If one throw was all it took to beat this guy then he really had to have been a weakling. Iris walked out the front door and looked around to see that the intruder had cause a bit of damage to the ship. She felt her temper starting to flare and closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath trying to control her anger.

Iris then jumped down to the main level of the ship to where Luffy and the intruder were. She landed right over the guy with her feet planted one on each side of his waist. Pain shot through her back as she landed, but she ignored it. "What the hell do you think you're doing to our brand new ship?" she growled at him as she crouched down and grabbed onto the collar of his shirt. His expression turned from one of defeat to one of panic as she glared down at him. "That guy over there already beat me up lady! Please don't hurt me!" he cried out.

"Is that you Johnny?" Zoro asked and Iris looked up at him as he looked at them over the railing on the deck up near the kitchen. She looked back down the the intruder and saw a look of recognition on the man's face.

"Big bro Zoro? Is that really you? Please tell her not to hurt me!" he pleaded with Zoro and Zoro laughed. "You know this idiot?" Iris asked and Zoro nodded his head. Iris glared at the intruder again, but let go of his shirt and collar, stood back up, and moved a few steps away from him. She was still angry at the guy for causing damage to their new ship though, and continued to glare at him with her arms crossed over her chest.

"It's been a long time, Johnny! So where's Yosaku? Did you guys split up?" Zoro asked.

"Your friends here practically killed him! He's sick and I had him resting on top of those rocks before the cannon fire knocked them all down," Johnny said as he stood up and backed away from Iris. "Your friend is kinda scary... She won't hurt me, right?" Johnny asked Zoro.

"Nah, she won't hurt you... Right?" Zoro asked as he looked at her with a laugh.

"As long as you don't start tearing things up again I can probably resist the urge to harm you. Where is your sick friend?" she asked.

Johnny looked over to the side of the boat and she walked over to the side of the boat and looked over to the ocean under them. There was a small paddle boat with a man lying in it. The man definitely looked sick and was a strange greenish color. She would rather Johnny just leave, but they couldn't just ignore his sick friend; especially since Luffy and Usopp had shot a cannon through their resting spot. "Why don't you bring him up here?" Iris asked as she looked at Luffy hoping whatever the sick guy had was not contagious.

Both Usopp and Luffy were crying apologizing to Johnny for almost killing his friend, and not listening to Iris. "Luffy!" she said louder and he looked over to her with tears still in his eyes. "If you're sorry, bring his friend up here," she said and he nodded his head as he sniffled.

Luffy walked over to where she was and stretched down his arms to grab the man and pull him up onto the boat. He set the man down in front of Johnny who was looking at Luffy in shock. "How did you do that?" Johnny asked and Luffy explained that he was a rubber man. Johnny then explained how Yosaku had suddenly fallen ill, started loosing his teeth, and passed out from the fever he was running.

"He looks awful," Zoro observed. Iris looked at the sick man and resisted the urge to comment on Yosaku's appearance. Sure, he was obviously sick but Iris thought that he was probably an ugly dude anyway and being sick probably wasn't making that big of a difference other than the greenish tint to his skin. She knew that would be a rather distasteful thing to say though, and so she bit her tongue.

"Are you guys that stupid?" Nami suddenly yelled, and Iris felt her blood boil. Nami's attitude and sense of superiority was too much for Iris to handle; if Nami had something to say could do so without insulting everybody there.

"What did you just say?" Zoro growled and Johnny mumbled something about not being to forgive her for mocking his sick friend. Nami ignored them and instructed Usopp and Luffy to go grab limes from the kitchen, squeeze the juice out of them, and to bring the juice to her. Iris watched as Nami poured the lime juice into Yosaku's mouth and shortly afterward his eyes popped open and he regained consciousness.

"You're alive!" Johnny shouted as he helped Yosaku up to his feet.

"How did the lime juice save him?" Iris asked Nami. She was surprised that something as simple as juice was able to help him feel better when he had looked so sick. She thought that he would for sure need to see a doctor for medicine to get better.

"He has scurvy. It's caused from malnutrition on long journeys at sea... It used to be a death sentence, but now that we have the technology to travel safely with perishable foods it can be avoided. That's why it's important to have a good cook," Nami explained. Iris had never heard of that illness, but she was glad that Nami had been able to identify the illness. It looked like even Nami could be useful from time to time.

"Okay, so we'll go find a cook next!" Luffy announced.

"Oh, I know a place with cooks. There's a restaurant on the sea not too far from here. It's a 2-3 day journey to the north of here," Johnny said and Luffy decided they would go that way. Then Johnny and Yosaku formally introduced themselves as bounty hunters. Iris didn't think they looked very strong though, so she didn't imagine that they made much money as bounty hunters.

After they had changed their course to head north and everybody had gone indoors Iris stayed outside looking out over the side of the boat watching the sea. She could feel the pain in her head starting to dull finally, and she was able to enjoy the quiet of being out here by herself. She wasn't used to being around other people so much as she had been the past few days. She had had to deal with people in her bar, but other than that the past four years since her dad had been taken away she had spent her free time training, out in the ocean, or in her little home by herself. She needed an escape to just be able to think, and she hadn't had even a moment to do so since she had left her home a few days ago.

The sun had now set and salty air was blowing through her hair as she closed her eyes in hopes of calming her mind. She let the events of the day sink in and her mind wandered to her father. She wondered how he was doing and hoped with every fiber of her being that he was doing okay. If she let her hope waver at all then she would start falling back into depression, and so it wasn't an option to give up on him.

Before going to bed Nami had come out and and informed Iris that they would be sharing a room, and the boys would take the other. Iris had come to the conclusion that that would probably end up being the case, but that still didn't mean that she was crazy about it.

After Nami had left and it looked like everybody had called it a night Iris made her way back to the kitchen. She looked to see if there was any alcohol and she was pleasantly surprised when she saw that there were a few barrels of sake and a couple bottles of nicer stuff. She would have preferred a nice bottle of whiskey, but this would do just fine. She hadn't really figured that Kaya and her butler would have stocked any alcohol, let alone this much. Maybe it was left over from the last time it had been used and they just didn't bother to remove it before gifting the boat to them.

She decided to grab one of the bottles and walked back outside and to the side of the boat where she could look over at the sea. It was a clear night and the sea was calm. She opened the bottle of sake and wondered for a moment if she should have just poured herself a cup rather than taking the whole bottle, but she decided that she didn't really care.

She put the mouth of the bottle against her lips and took a drink. The sake was good, though not as good as the stuff from Fishman Island, and it warmed her throat as it went down. Whoever had picked out this sake had good taste in booze.

"Out here drinking by yourself? That's kind of depressing," Zoro said from behind her, and she turned her head to look at him. He was walking up to her with his swords still attached to his hip and she wondered if he ever put them down.

"There is nothing depressing about enjoying sake by oneself... It's quite refreshing, actually," she responded as he walked up and stood next to her and looked out over the ocean. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he agreed. She had planned on drinking the whole bottle herself, as she could hold her alcohol well after being around it her whole life, but held out the bottle to him. He took the bottle and took a drink with a pleased expression on his face.

They stood there in silence for awhile passing the bottle between them until the sake was gone. She was enjoying being out on the deck with just him, even if it was only because of their mutual love of alcohol. While her head knew that this wasn't exactly a romantic moment, her heart still hoped that perhaps he was enjoying spending time with her and not just enjoying drinking.

"If you were serious earlier, about wanting me to teach you how to use a sword, you're gonna have to find a nice sword," Zoro said breaking the silence. She was somewhat surprised that he had been paying enough attention to her request to remember it. She was definitely interested in learning how to use a sword as it could add another skill to her list, but also because it would mean having a reason to spend time with him.

"I don't say things I don't mean. I'll take you up on that," she replied with a grin. She didn't have a desire to try and learn his three sword style, and she didn't figure he'd teach that, but she did want to learn how to use a single sword. It would give her a way to fight at a slightly further distance from opponents than she was able to use with martial arts.

Zoro then decided that he wanted more sake and went back to the kitchen to go and get another bottle. "Get the one in the purple bottle," she instructed him. "Trust me, I know my sakes," she said when he looked somewhat annoyed at being told what to do. He went into the kitchen, and sure enough when he came back out he was holding the purple bottle.

"This is pretty good stuff. How did you end up running a bar on that island?" he asked after taking a drink of the sake. She held out her hand and he passed the bottle over. She looked at the bottle for a moment and then to a swig of the sake before answering him.

"The simple answer is that it was my dad's bar, and I grew up in it," she replied.

"There's a not simple answer?" he asked as he sat down and leaned against the side of the boat. He removed his swords from his hip and rested them against his legs, and then reached up to her for the sake bottle. She handed it over and sat down next to him with a nod. She explained that it wasn't so much a matter of simplicity really, but it could turn into a long answer.

"Ehh... We've got all night, and there's still more sake in the kitchen... So explain away," he said. Iris wasn't sure if he was really interested in her story, but she figured she could tell him anyway. This seemed like an good opportunity to get to know him better. She still didn't feel comfortable enough to tell him about her being a fishman though; that would probably make him not interested in her.

So she explained about her dad being a pirate who fell in love with her mom when the crew he was on had stopped for supplies on the island, how her mom got sick and died when she was a young child, and how her dad came back to raise her and opened the bar to provide for them. She talked about her dad's love of the ocean, and how he taught her martial arts from the moment he came back to raise her. He had always taught her that being able to defend oneself was a necessary skill to have.

Before Iris knew it her guard was starting to fall. As she was retelling Zoro stories about growing up with her dad and what an amazing man he was; she almost let it slip that her dad was a fishman a few times, but caught herself before doing so. Being half fishman and her dad being a fishman was a huge part of her identity, but unfortunately it was looked down upon and discriminated against by society. She hoped that she would get close enough to him and the rest of the crew to be comfortable enough to be open about her race though.

When she got to the part of her life when her dad was taken she could feel her heart sinking in her chest. Just talking about it brought the memories to the surface and it felt like it had just happened all over again. She moved on quickly from the day he was taken and moved on to continuing to run the bar in hopes of saving up money to be able to sail out to sea, chase down the navy, and rescue her dad from them. That was when Luffy had come into the picture and asked her to join his crew. It was an offer that benefited her, and so she decided to join them.

"Your dad must have been a pretty great guy for you to want to go against the navy to rescue him," Zoro said after she had finished talking. She nodded and looked at the now four empty bottles of sake sitting on the floor in front of them. Normally this would be enough to get somebody drunk, but he seemed to be as alright as she was. Apparently the shared a high tolerance to alcohol.

"What about you? What's your story?" she asked him, but he didn't say anything. "Come on... I just told you my story. Give me something to feel like I know you a little better," she continued. He tilted his head back to look up to the sky and sighed. Iris felt slightly angry and kind of stupid for sharing her story so in depth to somebody who wasn't going to tell her anything about himself. She let her guard down to him, but it didn't look like he was going to do the same with her.

"My goal, ever since I was a kid, has been to become the greatest swordsman alive," he finally said. Iris felt her frustration start to diminish at his words; he did give her an answer, it just took awhile for him to respond. He didn't go as in depth with his story as she had, but he did give her some insight into who he was. He grew up on an island and wanted nothing more to become a swordsman, but there was a girl who was always better than him. She was his motivation to get better; he needed to be good enough to be better than her.

One day they made a promise that one of them would become the greatest swordsman alive, but shortly after she died in an accident. He trained as hard as he could, and eventually left the island with his three swords style wielding her sword that he had been given by her father. He trained so that he could uphold the promise they had made; since she was gone and couldn't become the greatest swordsman alive it fell onto him to carry it out.

Eventually he was dubbed the Pirate Hunter by people as he made his living off turning in pirates for bounties, but that was never his goal. Currently he was looking for a certain swordsman so that he could challenge him. He joined Luffy after Luffy had persisted in asking him to join his crew and freed him from the restraints that the navy had him in, and was using this as an opportunity to become stronger.

They continued talking for awhile and Iris was surprised to find out that Zoro was only 19; she hadn't thought that he was younger than she was. Two years wasn't a huge age difference, but she had figured that he was at least the same age as her if not a year or two older. She assumed that she was probably the oldest person in the crew; she figured that Luffy, Usopp, and Nami were younger than her and now she knew Zoro was younger than her too.

After they had finished their stories they sat next to each other in silence. Iris sat with a faint smile on her face and was happy that she had been able to get to know Zoro a little better, and hoped that she hadn't bored him too badly with her story. She could feel a fondness that was more than just attraction for this man growing in her; she appreciated his goal of becoming stronger and could even identify with it. She had spent her life trying to become stronger, though her reason for becoming stronger was definitely different than his. She had never thought about becoming the strongest of anything, but she was a fighter and had always known she needed to be stronger to be able to rescue her father.

Iris was pulled out of her thoughts when she felt a weight fall against her side. Pain surged through her back at the impact, but the pain wasn't an issue when she looked to her side and saw that Zoro had fallen asleep and had fallen into her as he slept. She felt her face go red and was glad that nobody else was around to see her flushed face.

She had planned on getting up and going to the bedroom, but she didn't really want to move now and wake him up. So instead she stayed sitting there with him with a smile on her face. She knew she was silly for being so happy about something like him falling asleep on her, but she was happy nonetheless. Pretty soon the warmth of his body started transferring to her body, and she felt herself growing drowsy too. She closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep.

When she woke up the next morning Zoro was still asleep and resting against her, and Nami was standing in front of them holding the four empty sake bottles. "Did you guys seriously stay out here and get drunk?" Nami asked and Iris shook her head no.

"It would take more than that to get me drunk..." Iris replied with a yawn. Iris shook Zoro slightly to wake him up, and he sat up straighter with a groggy expression on his face. He shut his eyes again and went back to sleep as Iris stood up and stretched her arms out in a manner that popped her spine. "I think I'm gonna go take a bath..." Iris said before walking away from Nami.

She walked to the bathroom and shut the door behind her. She filled up the tub with warm water, got undressed, and unwrapped the bandages around her middle. She turned her back to the mirror and looked over her shoulder to see the injury. The flesh along her rib cage was torn to shreds, and the wounds were so deep that she could see the muscles that were underneath the skin. She knew that getting into the water was going to sting, but a wound that deep needed to be cleaned out. She wasn't exactly sure how she was going to wash the wounds by herself, and so she hoped that soaking in the clean water would do.

Just as Iris sat down in the tub she heard a knock on the door. The water stung awfully on her back and she called out a "what" through gritted teeth to whoever was on the other side of the door.

"It's Nami, can I come in?" Nami said from the other side of the door. Iris rolled her eyes, but told the girl she could come in. Iris had wanted to take her bath in peace and quiet, but that obvioiusly wasn't going to happen. Nami came in and shut the door behind her holding some gauze and medical tape. "Here... Did you need any help cleaning your back?" Nami asked as she set down the medical supplies.

Iris did need the help, but she wasn't sure she wanted to ask Nami. There was also the fact that because she was in the bath she didn't have on her gloves or shoes and the webbing on her feet and hands were exposed. If Nami noticed the webbing she would for sure figure out that Iris was a fishman. "Why are you trying to help me? I know you don't like me much," Iris finally said not answering Nami's question.

"This isn't about liking you... You got hurt trying to protect people, and I'm not awful enough to ignore that. And I don't necessarily dislike you... I just have a feeling that you're hiding something..." Nami responded as she walked over to the tub. Nami grabbed some soap and started washing Iris' back and Iris yelped in pain. The soap burned and Nami's hands touching the open wounds was excruciating. Iris bit down on her tongue to prevent herself from crying out in pain until she was able to stand the pain.

"I'm pretty sure that we all have things about ourselves that we haven't shared," Iris finally responded in a controlled tone trying to hide the pain in her voice. While Iris was hiding her race from them she could sense that Nami had something she was hiding too.

"Fair enough... I think your wounds are cleaned out as good as they're going to get," Nami said as she dried off her hands. "Now if you stand up and dry off I'll wrap you up again," she continued. Iris pulled the plug for the drain in the tub and grabbed a towel to cover herself with as she stood up. Nami laughed at Iris' modesty saying they were both girls and there was nothing to hide, but Iris couldn't help feeling somewhat embarrassed being naked in front of another person. Iris knew that she really had no reason to be embarrassed, but she was anyway. She had always been overly modest with her body; though most of that stemmed from the small differences between her body and a normal human's body that she tried to hide.

"Come on, I'm just trying to help you. No, don't put your clothes on yet! This will be easier and I'll be able to do a better job if you don't put your bra back on until I'm done," Nami instructed as Iris started to get dressed. Her face went red, but she did what Nami asked. She tied the towel around her hips and used her hands to cover her chest so that Nami could place the gauze and wrap the tape around her. "See... that wasn't so bad," Nami said when she finished and Iris immediately went for her clothes to get dressed.

"Thanks..." Iris said quietly and left the bathroom. She was pretty sure that she had held her hands and feet in a way that Nami hadn't seen the webbing, or if Nami had seen it she hadn't reacted to it at all. And now that her back was cleaned and re-wrapped up it did feel somewhat better. She walked back out to the deck where the boys were and saw everybody up and out there. They all seemed happy and to be enjoying themselves, and Yosaku was moving around like he was feeling much better.

Iris walked down to the main deck of the ship and saw Luffy in the middle of what looked like some comedy routine, Usopp was spouting off how great he was even though nobody seemed to be listening, and Zoro was catching up with Johnny and Yosaku. The atmosphere on the Going Merry was light and cheerful, and Iris thoroughly enjoyed that. After living for years by herself and in a constant state of being angry it was kind of nice to be surrounded by people that were the opposite of her.

"Hey, Iris! How are you feeling?" Usopp asked her.

"A lot better," she replied with a smile on her face. While she knew that she would never really get away from her introverted tendencies she appreciated having people that she could talk to and spend time with. She felt more at home with them after a few days than she had on her home island that she had lived her whole life on. Perhaps being with them their cheerfulness might even rub off on her and help curb her temper a bit.


	7. Chapter 7

The next couple of days seemed to fly by and before Iris knew it she could see Baratie coming up on the horizon. It was a large boat that looked like a fish with a dock on the front for customers. Iris could smell the food as they got closer and felt her stomach rumble. The food smelled delicious, though she wasn't sure how she was going to pay for a meal since all of her money had been stolen by the Black Cat Pirates before they had left that island.

"AHHH!" Usopp screamed and pointed at a ship with his legs shaking violently beneath him. She looked to the boat that he was pointing at and saw a large sail with a Marine emblem on it. She felt her blood pressure start to boil knowing that it was the navy and was ready to rip apart everyone on that ship. It must have been obvious how angry she suddenly became because she felt Luffy's hand on her shoulder for a moment before he walked in front of her to look at the ship.

A cocky looking man was out on the deck of the boat staring them down. He introduced himself the Lieutenant Ironfist Fullbody and Iris was using every ounce of strength in her body to maintain her composure. Everything in her wanted to tear up the cocky lieutenant and beat out of him any information he might have about where her father was. This was the first time she had met anybody from the navy and he was as awful seeming as she had imagined.

She realized that she had been so fixated on what she wanted to do to the lieutenant that she had missed out on the conversation that had been happening between Luffy and the navy officer. She came back to reality just in time to see Johnny and Yosaku trying to prove they were big time bounty hunters by trying to take down Luffy, but the failed miserably as Luffy knocked them both down in one hit. They looked like they had each taken a lot of damage from the single hit; those two were a whole lot weaker than they let themselves believe.

The navy boat started to dock at the restaurant and Iris noticed that a cannon was aiming straight for their ship. "Guys..." she said as she pointed to the cannon. Everybody looked to where she was pointing just in time to see the cannon fire at them.

"He fired!" Usopp screamed in a panic. Luffy jumped up on the railing of the boat and inhaled air to inflate his body like he had to deflect the cannon against the Buggy Pirates. The cannon ball was deflected, but it was sent straight into the Baratie restaurant. Iris' eyebrow twitched slightly at the sight and wondered what the consequences for that would be.

They docked their ship and were immediately greeted by angry workers of the restaurant looking for whoever had fired the cannonball into the restaurant. Luffy owned up to it without hesitation and they took him away. "He's too honest for his own good..." Iris observed out loud and the others nodded their heads in agreement with a unanimous sigh. Iris appreciated his honesty, and it was one of the things that had made her trust him so quickly, but he could have easily blamed the navy for shooting at them first.

After waiting for awhile for Luffy to come back the group started getting impatient and wondered what Luffy would have to do to make up for the damage he caused. Iris knew that physical labor was the only thing that Luffy had to offer, but she didn't see him doing that for very long. While she hadn't been around Luffy for long, she was fully aware that he had a short attention span and was kind of klutzy.

"Well, if they're gonna make him work to pay them back maybe I'll see if they let me waitress in the meantime.. I could stand to make some money since those stupid pirates stole my money..." Iris said. She was a hard worker and figured being a waitress couldn't be any more difficult than being a bar tender.

"Why work when you could steal money and be a petty thief like Nami?" Usopp asked. Iris laughed as Nami became angry at Usopp's comment and smacked him upside the head. He screamed about her being an abusive witch and Iris laughed louder.

"I'm not a thief. I'd have to beat somebody up and threaten them to get their money. It'll be easier to go see if they need any extra help... Besides, if they make Luffy work they'll definitely need extra people to clean up whatever mess he makes," Iris explained.

Iris suddenly heard a shot and looked over the side of the boat to see a beat up looking man holding a gun and a man in a navy outfit crumpled on the ground in front of him. The gun was still smoking, and the man walked over the body lying in the entryway and into the restaurant. Iris was beyond curious about what was going on, but figured she probably didn't need to get involved. If she went down there and got involved then she would definitely end up dealing with those Marines in whatever manner she thought would be the most painful.

After it sounded like commotion in the restaurant had died down and she watched the arrogant lieutenant leave she hopped over the railing of the boat and landed on the dock. There was a dull pain that shot up her back as she landed, but her back had started to heal and it wasn't hurting nearly as bad as it had been a few days ago when she had gotten the injury.

"I'm gonna go inside," she shouted up to the others. Zoro, Usopp, and Nami made their way off the boat and followed her into the restaurant. They were seated at a table and water was brought out to them with some menus. Iris looked at the menu briefly, but she knew she wouldn't be able to buy anything. As she sat at the table she overheard some waiters talking about the new errand boy and how the head chef had said the errand boy would have to work a year to pay off his debt for the damage he had caused, but the waiters hoped that the head chef would forgive the boy before then because he was a walking disaster in the kitchen.

Just then Luffy walked up to them with an apron tied around his waist. "What?! You guys are sitting her enjoying yourselves while I'm being forced to work? I'm hungry too... I wanna eat!" he complained loudly.

Iris ignored Luffy's whining and started looking around for somebody that might work here and have some authority so that could ask about working for pay while Luffy worked off his debt to the owner. The place seemed short staffed from what she could see, and she figured they could use an extra set of hands.

Then a tall and slender blonde man with strange spiral eyebrows walked up to their table and started professing his love for both Iris and Nami. Iris felt her face go red at the unwanted attention and her automatic reaction was to glare at him. "Do you find this errand boy to be an eye sore? Is that why you're glaring, my lovely lady? Let me remove him for you" the blonde asked and she could feel her face turn a deeper shade of red.

"I'm fine with him... It's you that's making me uncomfortable..." she mumbled and he continued complimenting her as if he hadn't heard her say that he was the one upsetting her. Nami, on the other hand, seemed to be eating up the compliments that the man was doling out.

"This is your chance to leave, Sanji. Go be a pirate. All you do here is cause a ruckus and hit on the female customers. Look how uncomfortable you're making that girl. I'm done with you," a man in chefs clothing and a peg leg said out of nowhere. Sanji whipped around and the two got into a fight. The chef kicked Sanji into their table and Iris chose this as her opportunity to try and get some work at the restaurant.

"Excuse me..." she said as she stood up and walked over to the chef. "I noticed you're short on staff. If you need a waitress while my captain pays off his debt to you I'd be more than happy to help out. For pay though. I'm not helping him pay off his debt," she stated and Luffy yelled something in the background about it not being fair that she wasn't gonna help him out.

"Are you as accident prone and clueless as him?" the chef asked skeptically.

"Nope. I ran a bar in my hometown until it was destroyed by pirates a week ago, so I've got experience in the service industry," she replied.

"Can you hold your own against pirates and other rowdy customers?" he asked and she nodded.

"I won't pay you much," the man grumbled and she grinned. She knew how to behave to get tips out of men that would more than make up for lousy pay. She could alter her clothing slightly to show some more skin; men were an easy breed to manipulate if she wanted to. She felt it was somewhat dishonest and shameful to try and use sex appeal to get what she wanted, but if it worked it worked. She thanked him and he started to take her to the back to show her the kitchen, but Sanji stepped in and protested.

"We can't let a lady work!" he called out, but the chef and Iris ignored him. "Seriously! What kind of man would I be if a lady felt the need to work in my presence? Women should be pampered! Let me work for you," he cooed as he followed behind them.

He continued to go on about how men should work instead of ladies, and before Iris knew it she couldn't contain her frustration towards him any longer. As soon as he was close enough she stuck her leg out behind her and kicked him square in the jaw.

"I don't need you telling me that I'm some delicate little flower because I am a woman!" she shouted at him.

"I like you. You'll fit in here just fine," the chef said with a laugh as Sanji fell to the ground.

"My face!" he cried out as he put his hands to his jaw where her foot had impacted him. "Her lovely foot touched my face! Oh, I am so lucky!" he continued and Iris wasn't sure what to think. Did he have some sort of strange fetish? She knew one thing though, and that was that she wanted to get away from him quickly. He had to be some strange pervert to act like he did.

She followed him off the restaurant floor and he handed her an apron. "The name is Zeff, and I'm the head chef. Keep an eye on that clumsy captain of yours, and be quick about taking accurate orders and delivering them to the tables," he instructed and she nodded her head. He pointed her towards the kitchen and she walk through the swinging doors.

"I'm helping out as a waitress today... Are there any order pads back here?" she asked and was handed a pad of paper and pointed to a map of tables so that she could get a better picture of how things were set up and which sections had which tables. She walked back out and made a few adjustments to her shirt before heading out to the main floor. She took a corner of her shirt and tied it into a knot at the bottom of her rib cage, and pulled on the neckline to show off her cleavage. She also rolled down the waist band of her pants to reveal more of her hips. Her face turned red as she realized how ridiculous she was being, and she was embarrassed to be displaying her body to make money. Unfortunately for her this would be the easiest way to get money out of the male customers though.

She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and walked out onto the restaurant floor. Sanji immediately turned his attention back to her, but she to ignore him. She looked back over to her friends and saw that they seemed content enough sitting around the table chit chatting and eating. She had no ideas which tables had been helped so far, so she figured that she would jump in and ask people if they had been helped yet or needed anything.

She started taking orders from customers and taking the orders back to the kitchen. When orders were ready she took them out to the tables and turned up the charm as she interacted with the male customers. There was one particular table full of rowdy pirates who wanted to get handsy with her, but she quickly put them in their place when one of them tried to slap her butt and she punched them man in the face hard enough that he was sent flying out of his chair. "I expect a large tip from you idiots... Unless you all want to get beat up too," she sneered at them.

The next couple of days went by quickly enough as she worked during the day at Baratie. Between taking and delivering orders she was dealing with unruly customers, trying to chase off Sanji, and watching over Luffy to make sure he didn't mess up too badly. She made some pretty good tips from the customers in addition to the money she was paid at the end of each day for her shift.

During the nights when the restaurant was shut down she would return to the Going Merry and stash away her money from the day, get some sleep, and even fit some training in. She hadn't attempted to do much training on their journey over here after leaving Usopp's home island because of her injury, but now she was well enough to start getting back into a routine.

The third day that they were there Iris got up, got dressed, and got down from their ship to go into the restaurant to start her day. When she walked into the restaurant Sanji was standing there with a large plate of breakfast for her. She was tempted to turn the food down because she didn't like him, but he was a rather good cook. She thanked him for the food and scarfed it down before getting to work.

She walked into the kitchen to grab an apron and to start work, but noticed a large amount of dishes piled up. "Where's Luffy? Why didn't he do these dishes?" she asked somewhat annoyed.

"The errand boy? I dunno... But it's probably better if he doesn't touch them since he seems to break everything..." one of the cooks answered. She looked at the large pile of dishes and started washing them. When she finished washing the dishes that Luffy had neglected she grabbed an order pad and headed towards the exit of the kitchen. She noticed that at some point while she had been washing dishes that a good amount of the cooks must have left as the kitchen was mostly empty now.

She put her hands on the doors and pushed them open and she could hear that there was a bunch of screaming and commotion going on in the restaurant. She ran to the main floor and saw a large man with gold colored armor standing near the entrance. Zeff was standing in front of the armored man with a large bag of food in between them, and all the cooks that had left the kitchen were standing behind Zeff. Iris looked around and saw that the only people still in the room were the cooks, Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, the guy in armor, and another guy that appeared to be with armored guy. All of the customers that should have been in the restaurant weren't there, so whatever was happening must have scared them off.

Iris walked over to the table that Zoro and Usopp were at and asked what was going on. Usopp explained in a frightened tone that the armored man was the strongest pirate in the East Blue known as Don Krieg. Don Krieg was trying to steal the restaurant because his boat had been destroyed in the Grand Line. Usopp mumbled off a few other details, but they didn't seem overly important. Iris had heard of Don Krieg before; he was a big name in the East Blue. She was pretty sure he was an even bigger dirt bag than Kuro was.

"Hmm... He's definitely going to be our cook!" Luffy suddenly said looking at Sanji and Iris jumped. When had Luffy appeared behind her like that? When she had walked into the room he had been standing next to Sanji.

"Why him?" Iris asked with a groan and Luffy just stood there with a grin on his face. He had obviously made his mind up about the matter, and Iris had a feeling that she wouldn't be able to talk him out of it. Sanji might be a good cook, but his personality left much to be desired in her opinion.

"We should really go now guys..." Usopp said in a quivering voice.

"Nah, I have to fight him. If he's strong we'd end up fighting eventually, so I might as well get it out of the way," Luffy stated. He looked excited at the thought of getting to fight somebody strong, and Iris hoped that he'd be able to win against somebody like Don Krieg. From the rumors that Iris had heard Kuro would look like nothing standing next to Krieg.

Krieg left with the bag of food telling everybody that if they valued their lives that they should leave the restaurant now. Anybody who was still there when he got back would be killed on the spot and thrown into the ocean to become fish food.

Something was then said about a hawk-eyed man who had destroyed all 50 ships that Don Krieg had taken into the Grand Line. Zeff thought that the only man capable of annihilating the entire Krieg fleet was the hawk-eyed man. Apparently Krieg's ship was the only one that had gotten away in a fleet of around 50 ships, and that had been sheer luck because of a storm that came through and pulled his boat away. At the mention of a hawk-eyed man Iris noticed Zoro sit up a bit straighter and start paying better attention.

Zeff said that he thought the hawk-eyed man they were talking about was probably "that hawk-eyed man", and Iris had no idea what they were talking about. There was muttering going on about a hawk-eyed man that had been the the restaurant, but that turned out not to be the man that Zeff was talking about.

"It looks like my goal is tied in with the Grand Line then..." Zoro murmured.

"You're looking for this man?" Iris asked and Zoro nodded his head.

"You people seem like the kind of people who are going to die early. You're all idiots. Except for Iris and Nami of course; I will make sure that they are protected as a gentleman should!" Sanji shouted.

"Yeah, no thanks. I can protect myself," Iris responded as she noticed that Nami wasn't part of the group this morning. She must have decided to sleep in or count her treasure or something. The two prior days she had spent her time in the restaurant flirting with Sanji to get free food out of him.

"You have no right to call me an idiot. I made up my mind when I decided to become the strongest swordsman that I would give up my attachment to life," Zoro said as he glared at Sanji. Luffy chimed in by saying he agreed with Zoro and Sanji continued to look at the boys like they were idiots. Iris glanced to Zoro who hadn't missed a heartbeat when saying that he had problem giving up his life reach his goal, and she knew that she would protect his life as well as she could along with Luffy. Their goals were more important to them than life itself, which meant that they needed other people that were willing to look out for them along the way. They didn't seem to realize that if they died along the way that their goals were meaningless. If they died they wouldn't become the strongest swordsman or the Pirate King.

"You idiots! Haven't you realized the gravity of the situation we're in? You can continue your pointless conversation after we've dealt with the situation at hand," a cook shouted at them. Iris looked to the man saw that it was the cook that was named Patty. She couldn't stand Patty; he was arrogant, crude, and stupid. She even preferred Sanji to him.

"Hey ugly... That's no way to talk to us," she called out to him. His face turned red from anger and she smirked. She couldn't stand people like him that thought they were better than others. She was about to hurl another insult at Patty, but there was a big commotion outside suddenly. Iris looked towards and could see pirates rushing towards them.

She took a step towards the door to go and fight off the pirates, but before she was able to take another step she could see the large ship that Don Krieg had arrived on was seemingly sliced in half. She looked on in awe as she wondered what kind of weapon and power could put on such a magnificently terrible display. The ocean became instantly unsettled and waves were crashing about and the restaurant was thrashing about on the now rough waters.

Iris ran for the front door to go look and see if the Going Merry had been caught in whatever had just happened and didn't see it where they had left it when she had gotten outside. There was some splashing just off the dock of the restaurant and Iris saw Johnny and Yosaku trying to stay above the waves crashing around them.

"Big Bro Zoro! She... She took all the treasure and the boat!" they shouted.

"What?!" Iris yelled back at them thinking she must have misheard them. They repeated that Nami had taken everything and sailed away. "That bitch!" Iris screamed as she dove into the water and helped Johnny and Yosaku get onto the deck. They were having a hard time managing to keep their heads above the raging waves and it would be safest for her to help them rather than wait for them to get close enough to the dock to climb up.

She hadn't trusted Nami, but this was beyond even what Iris had thought Nami was capable of doing. That bitch had betrayed them and Iris knew that she would never be able to forgive Nami. Nami's pretending to enjoy their company was just that, pretend.

Zoro reached out his hand to help pull Iris back into the boat and she grabbed onto him. She got back up on the boat and wasn't hiding her anger at the situation in the least. Johnny explained how Nami had tricked them into lowering their guards by asking them to turn around so she could change her clothes. Iris couldn't contain her anger at their stupidity and the situation and slapped both Johnny and Yosaku across their faces.

"You two really are the epitome of stupid! There are plenty of places she could have changed in private! Men are so stupid!" she yelled at them. They looked back at her with tears in their eyes and apologized profusely to them.

"I never trusted that stupid girl... I can't believe I let me guard down enough for this to happen!" Zoro growled.

"Look, you can still see the ship!" Luffy said and pointed away from the chaos going on in front of them. "You guys go after her! Yosaku and Johnny, where is your boat?" Luffy asked them. Nami had cut the rope that they had used to tie their boat to the Going Merry when she took off and so their boat was still right there.

"Why go after it? That girl isn't worth going after," Zoro growled back at Luffy.

"The boat is worth going after! It's important!" Usopp shouted over all the noise.

"But I've decided that Nami is going to be our navigator!" Luffy protested.

"You still want to sail with that stupid bitch?! She betrayed us and left us with nothing Luffy! I won't forgive her!" Iris screamed at her captain not able to contain her fury. He looked at her with a determined expression and she knew he wasn't going to budge on the subject.

"Whatever. I don't know why I agreed to follow such a troublesome guy, but come on Iris, Usopp. We're going to go after her," Zoro instructed. Iris didn't budge and had no desire to go after Nami. "Let's go Iris. Don't you at least want to get that boat back?" he asked and she begrudgingly followed him. He looked at Luffy and asked what he was going to do, and Luffy said that he was going to stay and pay off his debt to the owner. "Okay, but be careful. Things are kind of chaotic here," Zoro said and Luffy nodded.

Iris was about to hop into the boat when she noticed that Zoro had become distracted and was staring at somebody. "That's him..." Zoro mumbled and Iris stared at the man that had appeared on the ocean in front of them. He had an intimidating aura about him, and Iris knew this man was strong. She could hear Zeff and the other cooks talking about the man and turned her attention to them. Zeff mentioned that it was Dracule Mihawk, the strongest swordsman alive.

She had heard that name before; Dracule Mihawk was one of the Seven Warlords. His talents as a swordsman were renowned worldwide and he was considered the strongest swordsman by the world, and currently there was nobody that could hold a candle to his talents. She turned her attention back to Zoro who was intensely staring at Mihawk. The man he wanted to challenge was a Warlord? That seemed like a suicide mission.

She could see that the Krieg pirate were having a conversation with Mihawk and some or the pirates had their guns drawn. The pirates fired and Mihawk drew his sword and deflected the bullets in a movement so fast that her eyes were barely able to follow the large sword. Did Zoro really think he could go against that man?

She turned to look back at Zoro, but he wasn't standing next to her any longer. She started looking around for him and saw that he was now behind the pirates that had shot at Mihawk. She had no idea how he moved so quickly and quietly to get over there without her noticing, but sure enough he was over standing on part of Krieg's boat that had been sliced into pieces.

Iris' heart was racing thinking about how this could go. Zoro was strong, but she didn't think he would be able to stand against Mihawk. She could see Zoro and Mihawk having a conversation, but she couldn't make out what was being said. She could, however, hear the pirates that were around Zoro realizing that Zoro was the famed Pirate Hunter and making a big deal about it. These idiots were afraid of Zoro, and they still thought they had a chance to defend themselves against a Warlord?

When Zoro untied the bandanna that was tied around his arm and tied it around his head Iris felt her heart drop. "Stop this, Zoro!" she shouted at him, but she knew that he wouldn't hear her with how focused he was on Mihawk. Mihawk tried to talk Zoro out of starting a fight by telling Zoro how outclassed he was, but Zoro didn't care and continued to challenge Mihawk to a dual.

Johnny and Yosaku were cheering on Zoro and confident that Zoro would not fall to anybody, and Iris wished that she held that same confidence. She had never seen Mihawk in person before, but she knew of the man and his reputation. After her father had been taken she had done as much research on the navy and the World Government as she could possibly do in hopes that she would find something helpful in her search. She had come across the Seven Warlords in her research of the World Government, and she knew how fearsome of pirates that they were.

Mihawk finally pulled out a small dagger and complained about it being a shame he didn't have something smaller. Zoro put one of swords in his mouth and held the other two, and swung at Mihawk looking confident. Mihawk extended his arm and was able to stop Zoro's attack instantly with his dagger. He was trying to push his swords forward towards Mihawk, but they weren't budging. So instead he pulled back his swords and started swinging at Mihawk.

She could see in Zoro's body language that he was growing frustrated and she imagined that was the first time that he had come across somebody stronger than himself in a long time. He had to have known at least to some extent how strong Mihawk was if he was actively seeking the Warlord out; so why was he so surprised there was a big difference in strength? Or had Zoro just heard of the Warlord in passing somewhere and decided that he would pursue Mihawk on a whim?

Iris listened intently as Mihawk lectured Zoro on the difference in their strengths and about how the East Blue was considered to be the weakest sea. Iris had no idea that the East Blue was a weak sea, let alone the weakest of all the seas. If that was the case the would people like Kuro or Krieg be considered weaklings elsewhere? That was somewhat mind boggling to her; she had thought there were plenty of strong pirates that sailed the East Blue.

Zoro and Mihawk continued fighting, and it was clear that there was no competition over who would finish on top of this duel. Johnny and Yosaku were about to jump into the ocean to go help Zoro, but Luffy stopped them. She understand that they wanted to help, but Luffy was right in stopping them. She wanted to go and stop the fight too, and to bring Zoro away from Mihawk, but this was not her fight. Zoro would no doubt never forgive her for getting involved if she did, and so she stayed where she was watching and praying that Mihawk would not kill Zoro.

Zoro continued to attack and Mihawk countered by shoving the small dagger into Zoro's chest where his heart would be. "ZORO!" she screamed out, but she didn't budge. Not only would it make Zoro angry if she interfered, Mihawk might be angered with somebody else interfering and kill Zoro on the spot. So instead she stood and watched hoping that Mihawk would let Zoro walk away from the fight alive.

"Why don't you move? I could easily pierce your heart and kill you," Mihawk asked.

"I don't really know... But I feel that if I pulled back now that I would lose something important to me. I think that's why I can't step back," Zoro answered.

"Even if it means death?" Mihawk asked.

"Yes. I'd rather die!" Zoro shouted with a smirk.

Mihawk stepped back and pulled the dagger out of Zoro's chest. Iris hoped that this meant that the fight was over. Perhaps Mihawk had felt some respect for Zoro's intense will to become the best? She was wrong though; Mihawk pulled out the large sword he carried on his back and she watched on in horror as Zoro moved towards Mihawk. Mihawk easily won the duel, and one of Zoro's swords was shattered in the process. Things then took an even worse turn as Iris watched Zoro stand in front of Mihawk with his arms spread wide. Iris felt as though her heart had stopped.

"A wound on one's back is the shame of a swordsman!" Zoro shouted with pride. Mihawk took his sword and slashed it across Zoro's chest and Zoro fell into the ocean. Iris jumped into the water without hesitation and swam straight to Zoro's body that was sinking into the ocean. He was bleeding profusely and looked to be unconscious.

She brought his body back up to the surface of the water and was relieved when she saw that he was still breathing by some miracle. She looked for Johnny and Yosaku's boat and swam over to it. "One of you get his swords that fell into the ocean; he'll be pissed off if he wakes up and their gone. Somebody get some medical supplies," she instructed as she got him into the boat.

"You idiot..." she said trying to hold back tears. Blood was oozing out of his chest and soaking through his shirt, and also coming out from his mouth. "If you die right now I won't ever forgive you..." she said quietly. Usopp came out of the small room in the middle of the boat holding some bandages and some antiseptic. She knew that his shirt would have to come off to bandage him up and she hesitated a moment before ripping the shirt. She knew it was necessary and that didn't figure he would care, but because of her crush on him she couldn't help but feel somewhat sheepish about ripping his shirt off of him.

"ZORO!" she heard Luffy yell and looked to where Luffy had been standing, but he was gone. She looked around and saw that Luffy was now over near Mihawk and new sense or terror washed over her. Was Luffy going to try and take on Mihawk too? She wasn't ready to deal with that; if something were to happen to both Luffy and Zoro she didn't know what she would do. She couldn't sail by herself with just Usopp.

She was about to call back to Luffy that Zoro was at least still alive, but before she was able to open her mouth Mihawk called out to Zoro. "Do not be so quick to die young, Roronoa! Become strong! No matter how long it takes, I will be standing here at the top of the world waiting for you! So forge ahead with that strong conviction of yours, and come for me! I will be waiting. Surpass me, Roronoa!" Mihawk yelled out.

Iris was shocked to hear the best swordsman in the world and a Warlord say such a thing. Whatever Zoro had said or done had left quite the impression on Mihawk. "Iris! Usopp! Is Zoro really okay?" Luffy called out to them from his spot next to Mihawk.

"Like he'd be alright after that!" Usopp yelled.

"He's alive at least," Iris called out to Luffy as she grabbed the bandages from Usopp. Johnny and Yosaku were crying and begging for Zoro to answer them, and Iris couldn't help but be somewhat annoyed by them. "Why don't you idiots have time to whine then help me with him!" she growled at them.

Iris was about to rip Zoro's shirt in half so that she could put the antiseptic on his wound and bandage him up when his arm moved to grab one of his swords. He stuck the sword up in the air as he opened his eyes and had tears streaming down his face. "You're awake," she said and wasn't able to stop the tears from falling from her eyes.

"Luffy! Can you hear me?" Zoro called out in a weak and stumbling voice.

"Yeah..." Luffy replied.

"I'm sorry I lost. I'm sorry I worried you. I will become the strongest swordsman alive so that I won't embarrass you. I swear that I won't lose again. Until I fight him again and win I won't lose; I swear it! Is that alright with you, Pirate King?" Zoro called out again with tears still streaming out of his eyes. The bleeding in his chest was getting worse and Iris wanted nothing more than to grab the sword out of his hand and force him to put his arm down, but she couldn't make herself do it even if he needed to stop moving.

She sat next to Zoro with an enormous respect for him. His will to reach his goal was strong and unwavering even after losing. He was strong, and now he was having to face that there were swordsmen stronger than him his pride was knocked down a bit. However, instead of becoming angry that he lost it had just given him even more drive to become the best. "And Iris, I heard what you said after you got me in the boat... You won't have to worry about having to forgive me if I die; I won't die," he said quieter.

"Promise?" she asked as she wiped the tears out of her eyes.

"Yeah, I promise," he said.

"That sounds great to me! Now go catch Nami and our boat!" Luffy instructed.

"Did you guys hear him? Let down the sail and let's go," Iris said and turned her attention right back to Zoro. She could tell that he was in immense pain from his expression, and she couldn't imagine what his pain level must be right now. It would be easier for him if he had passed out from the pain, but at the same time it was good for Luffy that Luffy had been able to see that Zoro was going to be okay.

"Be careful Luffy! Don't you dare fall into the sea without any of us here to help you!" she shouted back to him and he agreed with a shout. "I'm gonna have to rip your shirt to get it off you... I hope you don't mind," she said to Zoro as she put her hands on the collar of his shirt.

"That's... Fine..." he mumbled and she ripped the shirt. The wound from Mihawk's sword was even bigger and deeper than she had imagined and it was absolute miracle that he wasn't dead. She poured the antiseptic onto the wound and he groaned from the stinging that it caused, and she then instructed the other boys to hold Zoro in a sitting position so that she could wrap the bandage around him. Once she had wrapped the bandages around his torso and chest the boys laid Zoro back down on the floor of the boat.

He closed his eyes and his breathing was labored, but she thought that he would be okay if nothing else because of how strong willed he was. She grabbed a towel and dipped it in the ocean and then used it to wipe the blood from his face. "I'm alright... You don't need to take care of me..." Zoro quietly said. His voice was strained, but his stubbornness was still functioning just fine.

"Yeah, you're just fine Zoro... You're only bleeding all over, and you nearly got a puncture wound to your heart," she stated. He had to know that he was anything but alright, and he didn't protest her any longer. "It's okay to accept help from your friends you know," she said as she stuck the towel back into the ocean to rinse the blood off it.

When she looked back to Zoro he was trying to sit up and neither Usopp, Johnny, or Yosaku were trying to deter him from doing so. She shot a glare at them and glared at Zoro. "Seriously dude, part of promising you won't die would be to let your wounds heal. Moving around with gaping wounds that need to close up is not how you heal," she said trying not to sound too lecturous. Truth be told Zoro needed to be lectured, but she wasn't his mother and she really didn't want him to start viewing her like that in any way shape or form.

The next few hours she sat on the boat next to Zoro in silence as they sailed. They still hadn't caught up to the Going Merry. Iris had thought that it would quicker if she swam after the boat, but she was worried about Zoro and chose not to leave him. If she left and the other boys weren't paying attention and something happened to him she wouldn't be able to forgive herself.

"Guys... Yosaku and I think we know where Sis Nami is headed..." Johnny said breaking the silence. He explained that before she had pushed them off the Going Merry that she had been staring at the monstrous Fishman Arlong's bounty poster and they were headed in the direction of Arlong Park.

"She's going towards some fishmen?" Iris asked inquisitively and Johnny and Yosaku nodded. They started to explain what a fishman was assuming that she didn't know what one was but she cut them off. "I know what a fishman is. I didn't know there were Fishmen in the East Blue..." she said. Usopp and said that he didn't know what one was, but said they sounded scary. Johnny started to explain again, but she couldn't stand hearing him describe them all as monsters.

"Would you stop making them all sound so evil? I... Umm... Well... I..." she stammered. She had never shared her race with anybody outside of the island she lived on that had already known what she was, and she didn't know where to start. Should she just blurt it out? She wished that she wasn't so nervous about saying something so basic about herself, but no amount of wishing made her nerves settle down.

"Well... If we're headed to a place with other fishmen I should probably tell you... I mean, it'll probably come up eventually anyway... I'm half fishman and half human, and so I'm part of this monster race as you keep calling us. The reason fishmen dislike humans so much is because you all view us strictly as monsters..." she said waiting for them to all freak out and want to not sail with her any longer.

"You don't look like a fishman," Johnny finally said and she looked at him feeling confused. She looked to Usopp, Yosaku, and Zoro too who were looking at her much less judgemental than she had thought they would be. The only one that looked somewhat upset was Usopp; he looked confused. "I'm only half, and I took after my mom who was a human more than my dad," she continued.

"So how are you different than a normal human?" Zoro asked and she took off her gloves and shoes to show the webbing between her toes and fingers. She also pointed out her teeth and how they were shark teeth and not human teeth, and that she had gills on the base of her neck that allowed her to breath in the water. She could also do a form of martial arts that only fishmen could practice that was called fishman karate, and no human would be able to match her speed in the water.

"I'm not going to hurt you because I'm a fishman, Usopp. I'm the same person that you've been sailing with on the Merry the past few days," she stated when she noticed the boy was still looking at her funny. His confused and somewhat scared eyes made her angry and she took a deep breath to try and contain her temper. She knew he was a coward and it shouldn't be a surprise to her that her being part of an unknown race upset him, but it angered her all the same.

"Y-Y-Yeah, I know that! But why did you keep it a secret?" he asked trying to hide the fear in his voice with a laugh.

"I hid it because humans don't like fishmen, and I've never had friends before you guys, and I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize what I've gained here. I've never felt like I fit in or as accepted, and since I set sail with Luffy I've felt accepted. Then there's also the discrimation against fishmen that I had to watch on a daily basis growing up. My dad is a tiger shark fishman, and there was no hiding it. People were awful and verbally abusive to him constantly. That's why I hid it," she explained as she looked at her hands and the exposed webbing. She hadn't purposely exposed the webbing in front of anybody other than her dad since she was a very small child.

"Those skills seem like they would really come in handy, especially being a pirate and being on the sea. And since Luffy can't swim, I'm sure he'll put your skills to use with as klutzy as he is," Zoro said. She looked back up and looked over to Zoro who was looking at her unquestioningly. If her revelation had surprised him or upset him he didn't show it.

"Thank you..." she said to him.

"For what?" he asked.

"For not calling me a monster. For not looking at me differently now. For looking at the advantages of me being a fishman. I didn't expect for you to accept me so quickly after finding out who I really am," she said quietly.

"Why would I call you a monster or look at you differently? I accepted you as a crew mate the moment you set sail with Luffy and me. You're the same person I've been sailing with the past week or so," he said. Upon hearing Zoro's words Usopp chimed in that he felt the same way and that he had only been pretending to be scared. She hardheartedly smiled at Usopp knowing that he was still skeptical, but he was trying. She needed to not be angry at the scared kid from a small island that had never heard of a fishman before; his reaction to her had been better than what she had expected after all.

"How are you feeling?" she asked Zoro since it had now been a few hours since his duel with Mihawk. He shrugged and said he was fine, but he winced ever so slightly when he shrugged and she knew he was still in a lot of pain.

She wondered how Luffy was doing and knew that somebody needed to go back to Baratie and let him know where they were headed. Iris still had no desire to get Nami back, but she did want to get their boat back and hopefully the money she had earned the past couple days at the restaurant was still on the boat. It would be easiest for her to go back and so she told the others of her plan. She asked Johnny how she would get from Baratie to Arlong park and he explained it as best as he could.

"Don't do anything to push your body too much," she told Zoro and he nodded. She dove into the ocean and felt a peace wash over her as she swam beneath the water's surface. Her confession had gone much better than she had thought it would, and Zoro didn't see her any differently. His opinion was the most important to her of the people that had been with her, and she hoped that Luffy would have a similar reaction.

As she swam she let her mind clear as she took in deep breaths of the salty ocean water. She felt a sense of freedom in knowing that the others knew her secret and that she would no longer have to hide it from them. She might even be able to stop hiding it from the world around her if she had people at her side that accepted her as is.

She thought about how for the first time in her life she now had some friends. She had never really had friends growing up as she never felt fully accepted even by the others on the island that knew her dad and knew of her race. She had always been stronger than the humans around her, and she had always had an aggressive streak that made other children shy away from her. Now she had friends. Luffy and Zoro were even stronger than she was, and being a pirate was a fitting occupation for somebody with an aggressive temper.

When she could see the bottom of Baratie as she swam under the water she picked up her speed and swam straight for the dock. She could still see chunks of Don Krieg's boat floating around, but the waters were calm and it didn't appear that there was still a fight going on. When she reached the dock she pulled herself up and stood on the dock.

"Luffy!" she called out.


	8. Chapter 8

Iris looked for Luffy, but unfortunately Sanji greeted her first. "Oh, Iris! Did you miss me so much that you had to come back for me?" he said and she shook her head no as she tried to wring the water out of her clothes.

"Where's Luffy?" she asked and Sanji pointed her towards the restaurant while looking disappointed that she wasn't there to see him. She walked in and saw Luffy sitting on the floor happily slurping up some soup. "Luffy, we think we know where Nami took our boat," she said and he looked up at her with a grin.

"Iris, you should have some of this soup! It's good!" he said enthusiastically. Before she was able to respond Sanji was standing in front of her holding a bowl of soup for her. She thanked him and sat on the ground with Luffy. Sanji started to protest and say that she should be sitting on a chair rather than the floor, but she shot him a glare and told him that she was fine.

She ate the soup and explained that they had figured out that Nami was headed to Arlong Park. They didn't know what her goal was there, but it was a dangerous place teeming with strong fishmen. Iris could tell from the vacant look in Luffy's eyes that he had no idea what a fishman was. "We should probably head out to catch up with the others. Zoro is hurt, and I don't think that Johnny, Yosaku, and Usopp can hold their own against the fishmen at Arlong Park," she said when she had finished the soup.

"Okay!" Luffy agreed happily. She stood up and handed her bowl to one of the cooks. She saw Zeff standing toward the back of the restaurant and called out a thank you to him for letting her work for a couple of days. She started to walk towards the door of the restaurant and knew that she'd have to carry Luffy as she swam to Arlong Park since they didn't have a boat, but that shouldn't be too big of a deal. She didn't imagine that a rubber man weighed much of anything.

"Hey... I'll go with you. Take me with you guys," Sanji said and Iris wasn't so sure that she was up for taking both of them. There was also the fact that she didn't care for Sanji. "I'll accompany you on your way to becoming the Pirate King and find the All Blue along the way. So let me cook for you guys," Sanji continued.

"Yahoo! Sounds great!" Luffy shouted and started walking outside with a big smile on his face. Iris figured that Sanji probably had goodbyes to say and followed Luffy outside. When she had gotten outside there was a boat sitting there waiting for them, so it must have come as no surprise to the other cooks that he was leaving. It wasn't as big or nice as the Going Merry, but it would more than do to get them to Arlong Park.

"We can really use this?" Luffy and the cooks that had brought the boat around to them explained that it was Sanji's boat, and since Sanji was going with them it was only natural that they would take the boat. Iris thanked them and jumped into the boat. This would be much easier than her trying to swim all the way to Arlong Park with both Sanji and Luffy.

The boat was packed full of food and had a small, but nice kitchen in the center room on the boat. This boat was definitely meant for a cook. "We really need to get going..." Iris mumbled as she looked at the position of the sun in the sky. It would take them a bit to get to where they were going, and she really didn't want the others getting into trouble before her and Luffy got there.

Finally Sanji came walking out of the restaurant carrying a small bag of belongings. Patty and Carne, the two cooks that got along with Sanji the least, came at Sanji from behind. Sanji swiftly dealt with them by kicking them down and Iris had to admit she was kind of impressed. She had only seen Sanji get into a few minor squabbles in the restaurant while she was working there, but she knew that Patty and Carne weren't considered weak among the other cooks. She didn't consider them to be overly strong, but she was also much stronger than the average person. For Sanji to be able to deal with them like they were nothing meant that he must be relatively strong.

"Let's go," Sanji said when he got to the boat, and Luffy asked him if he was going to say any goodbyes. Sanji said that he wasn't, and Iris understood how he must be feeling. She hadn't said goodbye to anybody but the old village chief, and she hadn't planned on doing even that. It was easier and less emotional if you left with things as they were.

"Hey, Sanji... Don't catch a cold," Zeff said from back at the restaurant. At that instant tears started falling out of Sanji's eyes. Sanji turned around, got down on his knees, and bowed his head down to the ground. The showing of respect for Zeff made Iris think that there might be some redeeming qualities in the cook after all. Iris was actually quite touched over the whole thing.

"I'm eternally grateful to you for taking care of me for so damn long! I will never forget the debt I owe to you!" Sanji cried out to Zeff. Zeff wiped some tears out of eyes while mumbling something about how men were supposed to say their goodbyes silently, and the rest of the cooks were putting on quite the emotional display as they said goodbye to Sanji.

"Not to break up this touching moment... But we really should get going..." Iris said loud enough for only Luffy and Sanji to hear. She felt somewhat bad for putting a damper on the moment, but she was worried about the others. Sanji got into the boat and watched as Baratie fell out of their sight. Once Iris thought that she had given Sanji enough time to get his emotions sorted out she started explaining the few details about Arlong Park that Johnny had told her.

"Luffy... We don't know why Nami was going to Arlong Park, but if you have to fight these fishmen they'll be a difficult opponent for you. I imagine they'll try to move the fight to the ocean since they're stronger in water, and since you can't swim that'll be all the more reason for them to take the fight to the water," she explained, but she could see that he wasn't listening. He had somehow found a pad of paper and a pencil on the boat and was drawing something.

"What's a fishman? Do they look like this?" Luffy asked and showed her his drawing. It was a badly drawn fish with human legs and arms sticking out of it. Sanji was laughing at the awful drawing, and Iris felt her temper surging. She knew that Luffy wasn't purposefully insulting her, but she was angry all the same. She smacked him upside the head and then grabbed the paper out of his hands. "OW! What was that for?!" Luffy cried out.

"That's insulting, Luffy," she growled.

"Why is it insulting? I've never seen one before!" he shouted while rubbing the spot on his head where she had hit him. She wasn't sure if she had actually hurt him since he was made of rubber or if he was acting so that she wouldn't hit him again.

"But you have seen one... In fact, you've been sailing with one. I'm a fishman... Well, half fishman. A full blooded fishman looks more like whatever type of marine animal they are related to than I do. Your drawing is insulting to me," she stated in a calmer tone. He looked at her with a vacant expression and she tried to contain the anger rising up in her. He really wasn't doing anything wrong, but she was angry all the same. This was not an easy thing for her to talk about, and it seemed like he wasn't paying her attention.

"So you're like a mermaid?" Sanji asked and she could practically see the lecherous thoughts he was having in his eyes. She reached out and smacked him trying not to let her face turn red. She would need to learn to deal with better him if he was going to be sailing with them; she wasn't happy with herself for letting him make her so uncomfortable.

"No, I'm not 'like a mermaid,' I'm a fishman," she grumbled at him.

"It doesn't matter I suppose... A beautiful lady is still a beautiful lady," he cooed as if she hadn't just hit him. There had to be something seriously wrong with him if he was willing to take a beating from her and still be so happy with her.

"Hey... So what does it mean if you're a fishman?" Luffy finally asked.

"It means that I have some abilities that humans don't," she started. She continued to explain that she could breath underwater with gills that were at the base of her neck, that she had webbing between her fingers and toes that enabled her to swim better and faster than humans, that she was stronger in the water than she was on land and could use fishman karate, and she pointed out her sharp shark teeth. He seemed to be listening to her now and even looked at her with fascination.

"Wow, your teeth are cool! I wish I had big sharp teeth like that!" he shouted and chomped his teeth together repeatedly as if he was pretending to have her teeth. She laughed at his reaction to her explanation; this simple minded boy thought that she was cool. She hadn't ever thought in her wildest dreams that anybody would react to her being half fishman by thinking she was cool. She felt extremely silly for being angry at him moments earlier.

She asked him about what had happened with Don Krieg and he triumphantly told her about how he had beat Krieg. He also told her about how strong their new cook was and how strong his kicks were. She was glad to hear that Luffy was impressed with Sanji's strength; they would need all the strong people they could get so that they could take on the Grand Line.

"Do you mind if I swim ahead to Arlong Park? I can swim a whole lot faster than this boat can go," she asked Luffy and he said that was fine. She thought about giving him the directions to Arlong Park, but she had a feeling he would get distracted and get them lost. She looked to Sanji and cringed at the thought of having to initiate conversation with him, but she supposed it was better than Luffy getting lost at sea.

"Hey Sanji... I'm going to swim on ahead of you guys to Arlong Park as long as you can navigate there..." she told him.

"Let me make you some food first! And of course I can navigate there, but it would be much more enjoyable if you stayed here!" Sanji said.

"Thanks, but no thanks. There's a better wind behind the ship than there was earlier, so it shouldn't take you guys as long to get there as the other guys... But I can still swim quicker," she said and explained the directions that Johnny had given her of how to find Arlong Park.

"But what'll happen if something happens to you before we get there? A gentleman doesn't let a lady go to dangerous places on her own," he pleaded.

"I'm not an average woman, Sanji. I can more than take care of myself," she said through gritted teeth. She then dove off the side of the boat and swam as fast as she could. She hoped that things hadn't gone too terribly wrong with the boys while she had been gone.

As she swam she finally could see the base of an island coming up. She swam back up to the surface to look for Johnny and Yosaku's boat or the Going Merry. She saw the Going Merry and swam towards it. When she got to the land she stepped out of the ocean and started heading towards what looked like a little village. She could hear some sort of commotion going on.

She ran up to the village as quietly as she could and saw a giant fishman beating the crap out of a human. That poor human didn't stand a chance against such a large fishman, but Iris wasn't about to step into a fight she knew nothing about. So instead she stood in the shadows between two buildings to watch. She was forced to step in, however, when she heard Usopp's voice and one of his slingshot bullets exploded on the giant fishman.

"Run, Usopp!" she screamed and stepped out to where he could see her. He looked at her for a moment and then took off running. The fishmen in the village and the human villagers were all looking at her now. The giant fishman that had been assaulting the human looked thoroughly enraged now and she had no idea what she would be able to do against somebody like him.

"I'm going to kill all of you lowly humans and show the world once and for all which species is superior!" he roared and started looking for Usopp. Thankfully Usopp had run off when she yelled at him though. The other fishman were trying to get the giant fishman under control and she heard one of them call him Arlong. That meant that he was the leader of this group of fishmen.

He started going wild and destroying buildings while the other fishmen tried to talk him out of it; they were saying something about if he destroyed the village and killed all the humans then they would lose the income they got by taxing the village. It took a large amount of fishmen to hold Arlong back and Iris watched curiously. These fishmen might be evil, but she had never seen so many before. Really the only fishman she had ever met before was her dad.

"Hey you... You're with whoever shot Arlong, aren't you?" one of the fishmen asked her. She smirked at them briefly and then took off running. Three of them ran after her and she hoped that they were only chasing after her and not Usopp. Usopp wouldn't be able to fight them off like she could.

Once she had gotten out of the village a ways she suddenly stopped and the fishmen behind her almost ran into her. She went into combat mode as her adrenaline levels sky rocketed. She hadn't been around another fishmen in four years since her dad had been taken away, and even then he was the only one she had ever met. These three were vastly different than him, and she imagined that they were nowhere near as strong as her dad. Her dad was always gentle with her, but she knew that he had been quite the brute during his pirating days.

"You're dead meat for messing with us, girl," one of the fishmen said cockily.

"I doubt that," she replied with a smirk. One of the fishmen threw a punch at her, but she was able to avoid the punch easily by doing a back bend. She put her hands on the ground and picked her feet up off the ground, then wrapped her legs around the fishman's middle, and flipped him over and crushed his head into the ground and proceeded to knock him unconscious. When she had put her hands on the ground they had landed in a puddle, and so when she jumped back to her feet she took some of the water from the puddle and flung it at the fishman like little bullets forcing them to back up to avoid the water.

"What did you just do?!" another fishman asked with eyes wide open.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you think that you were dealing with a human?" she snickered and flashed them a big, toothy grin. She quickly dealt with the other two fishmen and dragged their unconscious bodies to the ocean and threw them into the water. When they came back to they could go tell that Arlong guy all about the unknown fishman that had beat them up; though it hadn't taken much effort on her part to deal with them. They were kind of disappointing to tell the truth.

She started walking back to the village so that she could try and track down Usopp and maybe ask the villagers about the fishmen, but she was stopped when she saw Zoro running away from the village. She called out to him and ran towards the direction he was running to catch up with him. For a man that had almost died a few hours earlier he seemed to be doing surprisingly well.

"Oh, you're back. Is Luffy here?" Zoro asked as they ran and she shook her head now. She explained to him Sanji had decided to join them and so Luffy was on his way here with Sanji, and that she had decided to swim ahead because it would be quicker. There was suddenly a large boom that sounded like an explosion and they both instinctively looked towards where the noise had come from, but Iris couldn't see anything.

"Have you seen Usopp?" she asked him.

"One of the villagers said he was caught by a fishman and being took to Arlong Park..." Zoro answered.

"Ugh... That stupid boy. I drew attention to myself after he attacked Arlong and he still couldn't get away..." she grumbled. Zoro gave her a questioning look, but before she could respond a boat was coming towards them and taking down trees as it slid.

"Oh, Zoro! Iris!" Luffy said as Iris realized that it was Sanji's boat coming towards them. She went to move out of the way but felt somebody grab her instead and pull her up into the boat. She realized it was Sanji and slapped his hands off of her as quick as she could and held onto the boat as it continued to slide through the trees.

"Don't touch me again. Ever," she hissed at him.

"I was just saving you!" he said as he held back onto the boat. She looked around the boat to see if Zoro was on the boat, but he wasn't. Hopefully he had gotten out of the way quick enough... He was already injured and didn't need any more injuries added.

The boat finally stopped when it hit a rocky wall and she was thrown from boat as it crashed. She managed to dig her fingers onto the ground and back handspring back to a standing position without hurting herself. She looked around for Zoro and saw him sitting against the rocky wall and he was bleeding again.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Zoro shouted angrily, and Luffy responded by explaining that he was there to get Nami back. Iris jogged over to Zoro and asked him if he was alright and he nodded his head yes. She didn't believe him, but there really was no point in arguing. He wouldn't admit he was hurting to her, especially in front of the others.

"How did you guys get here so quickly?" Iris asked Luffy and Sanji.

"We saw a sea monster! We beat it up and made it bring us here. It swam fast! But then it stopped and sent us flying through the air," Luffy exclaimed. Iris cocked her head to side slightly at his answer; it wasn't a super believable story, but he had no reason to lie. And it wasn't like she could think of anything that would be more plausible for how quickly they got here and how they were sent flying into the sky.

"Oh crap... I have to go save Usopp before-" Zoro started.

"It's too late!" a voice interrupted and Iris looked to see Johnny and Yosaku walking towards them with tears running down their faces. "He's already dead! We watched as Brother Usopp was killed by Nami!" the two cried.

"W...What?" Iris asked in shock. She didn't trust Nami by any means and thought they were better off with out her, but she would never have thought that Nami was capable of killing another person. What could possibly give Nami a reason to kill a defenseless kid like Usopp?

"Take that back!" Luffy screamed at Johnny and Yosaku. "Nami wouldn't do that! We're crew mates!" Luffy continued screaming as he grabbed onto Johnny's shirt and looked like he was going to start beating Johnny.

"Stop it Luffy! Why would he lie?" Iris said as she pushed Luffy off of Johnny, and then stepped between the two. Part of her felt that she shouldn't step in and interfere with her captain as she knew from listening to her dad that you didn't ever go against your captain, but Johnny hadn't done anything wrong by saying what he had said. Luffy looked up at her with rage in his eyes, but she wasn't going to budge.

"Why are you upset at Johnny, Luffy?! You should be upset that Usopp is dead!" she screamed back at Luffy and felt tears well up in her eyes. Usopp had only been with them a couple of days, and they couldn't even manage to take care of the kid for that short amount of time. Even if she thought the boy was a cowardly liar he didn't deserve to die; he had even grown on her a bit the couple of days it had taken for them to sail to Baratie. The moment Luffy asked Usopp to join them and Usopp accepted Iris knew that they would all have to protect the boy, and they had failed.

"He's not dead! Nami wouldn't kill him! She's part of our crew!" Luffy yelled at her. He was determined to believe that Nami was part of their crew and she felt sorry for him. He was willing to bury his head in the sand to believe what he wanted to believe.

"Who is your crew mate Luffy? Why did you come to this island?" Iris heard a familiar voice say. She looked up and saw Nami and her blood boiled. Iris was ready to jump on Nami and rip her apart, but she felt a hand grab onto her arm and looked to see Zoro holding onto her. He looked at her and shook his head no, and she stayed standing where she was trying to not explode from the anger she felt. She held her jaw clamped tight together in frustration and bared her teeth.

"We're crew mates aren't we? We're here to take you back," Luffy calmly stated.

"Crew mates? Don't make me laugh. It was nothing but some stupid cooperation, and you guys were easy to take advantage of," Nami said with a cold look in her eyes. Sanji then started to make a racket about how beautiful Nami was and Iris was about to punch him, but Zoro started yelling at him instead. There was another thing that she and Zoro had in common; neither of them like Sanji.

"See? I told you she's a witch! She's a part of the Arlong Pirates!" Johnny shouted. He continued shouting about how awful Nami was but Iris stopped listening at the mention of Arlong. Nami was part of the Arlong Pirates? If she was part of a fishman pirate crew then there was no way that Nami hadn't figured out Iris' race. And if she was part of a fishmen pirate crew then why did Iris get the feeling that Nami didn't like her because of her race? None of this was making any sense to her.

"Nami!" Iris said sternly and interrupted Johnny. "You've known this whole time, haven't you?" Iris asked her trying to contain her emotions. Nami looked at her blankly for a moment and then the look on her face turned to pity. Iris didn't know why Nami would pity her, but the fact that she did made Iris see red. That stupid bitch thought she was better than Iris, and it took every ounce of strength and control in her body to not attack Nami.

"That you're a half breed, you mean? Yeah, I figured that out the first day I met you," Nami answered plainly.

"Then why didn't you say anything?" Iris snapped back.

"There was no point in me ruining your little secret. And I was curious about what a half breed was capable of," Nami said. Calling Iris a "half breed" pissed her off immensely. Her heritage was derived of two different races, not breeds. She was not a dog that was bred to be a certain way.

"Where is Usopp?" Zoro suddenly interjected before Iris was able to react to the insult.

"At the bottom of the sea," Nami replied with a smirk. Zoro went from ticked off to enraged and started to unsheathe his sword, but Sanji stopped him with a kick. Sanji started going off on Zoro asking about if swordsmen hurt women and lecturing about chivalry. When Zoro had had enough of Sanji's lecturing he offered to slice of Sanji's head, and the two started getting into a physical altercation.

"Knock it off you two! Sanji leave him alone or I'll help him slice your head off. You know nothing about this situation, so butt out. And Zoro, you're still injured whether you chose to acknowledge it or not. Stop doing things to further injure yourself," she snapped. How could Sanji think that Nami was worth defending just on the grounds that she was a female? His chivalrous attitude or whatever it was that he thought of himself was rather annoying. Just because somebody was a female didn't mean that she was worth anything or needed to be protected. That attitude would probably get the perverted cook into trouble at some point.

"Okay, Iris!" Sanji happily responded to her threat and stopped fighting with Zoro.

"Why don't you all leave this island? We don't need outsiders stepping into the business of this island. I only stuck around you guys for the money I could make, don't you get it? So just leave," Nami said. "If this about the boat you can have it back. Just take it and leave. Go find yourself another navigator."

Luffy suddenly fell down onto the ground and closed his eyes mentioning that he wasn't ready to leave the island and that he was sleepy. Iris couldn't but roll her eyes at him; he was acting like an immature, stubborn child. She wasn't afraid of the fishmen or being on the island though, so it wasn't as if staying on the island for awhile longer would do any harm.

"FINE! If you don't want to leave and would rather be killed by Arlong I don't care!" Nami shouted and walked off. Nami's tone sounded like she did actually care, but Iris wasn't at a point to think that Nami could care about them. If she had cared about them she wouldn't have stolen their boat and killed Usopp, though there was still a small hope in her that Usopp was somehow still alive. Iris watched as Nami stormed off and took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself down.

As Iris calmed down she tried to think about the situation a little more clearly. Nami had known that Iris was a fishman all along and was even part of a fishmen crew, but Iris was still fairly positive that Nami was racist towards fishmen. She didn't think it was because she was half human and half fishmen, but perhaps that did have something to do with it. Iris had never thought about the fact that others might have an issue with her being half fishmen and half human; she was part of two races that didn't get along with each other well, and each side very well could consider her to be an impurity to the race.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by Zoro and Sanji fighting with each other again. If they were constantly going to be fighting it would get old really fast. As they continued to fight they were stopped when another person got in between them somehow and the person fell to the ground unconscious from the blow. Iris wasn't sure why somebody had chosen to get in the middle, but then she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw who that someone was.

"Usopp?!" she cried out and ran to the boy. He was bleeding now from Sanji's kick and unconscious, but he was alive. "How could you do this to him?!" she growled as she glared at Zoro and Sanji. Sanji started apologizing to her which only served to tick her off further. "Why the hell are you apologizing to me?!" she growled as she held an unconscious Usopp in her arms.

"You're alright," Iris sighed when Usopp opened his eyes. Now that he had regained consciousness Iris let go of him and he sat down while rubbing his head where Sanji had kicked him. Iris felt a wave of relief wash over her that the kid was alright.

They all asked him what had happened after making sure he was alright. He explained that Nami had only made it look like she had killed him. She stabbed her own hand so that he would be able to get away after he was thrown into the water. The situation had now become even more confusing, but she was still just really relieved that Usopp was alive and that Nami wasn't evil enough to kill him.

"It's useless, ya know. You won't be able to change Arlong's rule, and Nami won't join you," a pretty girl said as she walked up to them.

"Who's she?" Luffy asked and Usopp told them it was Nami's sister. Sanji started fawning over the woman, but the woman ignored him. The woman offered to explain the situation on the island if they agreed to leave, and Iris was curious so she agreed to listen. Luffy, on the other hand, decided he was going on a walk and left without listening.

"What's with him?" the woman asked.

"Don't mind him. He's being stubborn," Iris responded. The woman introduced herself as Nojiko, Nami's older sister. She started off by telling them about the day that the Arlong Pirates showed up on the island, and how the fishmen had killed their mother in front of their eyes. She then went on to tell them that one of the fishmen found Nami's maps and Arlong took Nami away to become their cartographer, and how she came to an agreement with him that is she would buy back the village for 100,000,000 Berries.

After joining the Arlong Pirates Nami refused to ask for help from anybody else and took the on burden of rescuing the village on her all by herself. She had a deep seeded hate of the Arlong Pirates and fishmen, but she had hope that she would be able to free everybody from Arlong's rule. She couldn't handle the thought of anybody else dying like her mother had.

As Iris listened to Nojiko's story she could feel her heart breaking and she felt like an awful person for all the negative things she had thought and said about Nami. There was a reason that Nami was a thief, there was a reason she hated pirates, there was a reason she tried to keep a distance between herself and them, and there was even a valid reason for her disliking fishmen. Iris knew that if she had been put through such a hellish life by another race that she wouldn't like that race either. She was wary of humans for how her dad had been treated, and that wasn't half as severe as what Nami had been through.

"We have to save my beloved! How could they do this to her?!" Sanji shouted with tears running down his face, and Nojiko smacked him over the head saying he couldn't do that. They all had to leave the island. Them being their was causing the fishmen to doubt Nami, and Nami didn't need that stress when she was so close to accomplishing her goal.

"No... We have to help her. Do you really think Arlong will keep his promise? I don't know him, but I don't think he will..." Iris quietly said as she looked down at the ground trying her best to hold back the tears that were threatening to pour down from her eyes at any moment.

"Didn't you listen to what I said? There's nothing you can do!" Nojiko yelled at her.

"You're wrong! We can and will do something," Iris shouted. Nojiko was about to protest, but she stopped when Iris looked up at her holding back tears and Nojiko's expression softened. "I... I've said and thought some pretty awful things about Nami. I have to prove to her that not all fishmen are awful and evil people!" Iris said.

"What... Do you mean?" Nojiko questioned skeptically.

"I'm half fishman and half human," Iris started and Nojiko's expression turned into a hateful one. "Nami doesn't like me for that, and now that I know why I have to help. I'm not okay with other fishmen treating humans like this, so I have to help," Iris said with a cracking voice as she tried to hold back her emotions. She had never felt so upset before; the emotion she was used to taking over her was anger. This feeling was much more debilitating that what she was used to.

"Those damn fishmen... They'll pay for what they've done to Nami! And now they're hurting Iris too! This in unforgivable!" Sanji shouted and interrupted. Iris didn't even have the will to tell him to shut up. He really had no idea what he was talking about, but the fact that he didn't despise her for being half fishman after hearing the things that fishmen were capable of made her a little happy.

There was then some noises coming from the village and Nojiko ran off after telling them all again that they needed to butt out of the village's affairs and leave the island. Sanji and Usopp decided to and find Luffy and Iris stayed back with Zoro who was sleeping against a tree.

Once she was alone with a sleeping Zoro Iris let her emotions loose. The only other time she could remember being this upset was when her father had been taken away. Even though she had kept her race a secret she had still always taken pride in being a fishman and had hoped to meet more. These fishmen, however, were the opposite of what she had wanted to meet.

She understood their hatred of humans, but forcing them to buy their lives or be killed was beyond comprehension to her. She had never understood how her father was able to love humans as much as he did with how awful most of them treated him, but perhaps that was because he had known how ugly hatred could be and how it could destroy lives. In that moment she was thankful that her father had tried his hardest to engrave in her brain that there were humans out there that were good and would be able to overlook her differences.

That lesson was something that she learned today; all of her new friends seemed to have no problem with her and her race. The only one that had shown any sort of reservation had been Usopp, but he seemed to have gotten over that. Luffy had even thought it was cool when he found out; that was a reaction that she had never thought would happen.

As she sat next to Zoro with her knees pulled to her chest and tears running down from her cheeks and dipping onto her legs, she realized that there must be others out there like her friends who didn't care what a person's race was. She had spent her life thinking that she'd never really feel accepted by other humans, but she was proved wrong.

And now she was finding that humans weren't the only ones to blame in the sour relationship between fishmen and humans. If fishmen had so much hatred in them that they were willing to kill humans so easily and rip apart families then there was a reason for humans to dislike fishmen. Iris could see that both sides were at fault for how bad the relationship between the races was.

"Hey, are you alright?" Zoro asked.

"Yeah... I'm fine. Let's go to the village and find Luffy and the others," she responded as she wiped the tears out of her eyes. Zoro looked at her like he didn't believe her for a moment, but then shrugged his shoulders and they stood up and walked to the village. She was embarrassed by the amount of tears that she had shed today. She knew how to deal with anger, but these other emotions were different and annoying. She didn't want to appear weak, and that was exactly what she felt she was doing at the moment.

"What did you do to her, you stupid moss head?! Iris, why were you crying?!" Sanji shouted when they walked into the village. She wasn't crying any longer, but she could imagine that her eyes were red and puffy from the crying she had done. She had hoped to convey a tougher image than she currently was, but unfortunately that wasn't the case right now.

"She was already crying when I woke up, so it must be your fault she's upset," Zoro snapped back at Sanji.

"Would you two leave it alone?" she said feeling flustered. She was embarrassed enough that she had been crying, and she didn't need it pointed out further. She sat down on a porch of a shop next to Usopp and looked at the ground. This day had been insane up to this point, and if they were going to face Arlong it would probably get even more crazy.

She could see that the villagers were starting to gather in the main road that went through the village and they looked like they were taking up arms. Considering that none of the villagers had gone against Arlong even the slightest bit in the past eight years something big must have happened. According to Nojiko they had been waiting patiently for Nami to reach her goal, so did that mean something had happened that made her goal unreachable?

Nami came running into the village all of a sudden and started trying to reassure the villagers that everything would be okay, but the villagers didn't seem to be buying it. Nami became visibly upset when the villagers weren't going to put down their weapons, and she started to panic. She even held a knife out towards one of the villagers as if trying to threaten them to stop, but the man reached out and grabbed the blade to stop her. He wasn't afraid of facing Arlong even if it meant death.

Once the villagers had all stormed off towards Arlong Park Nami fell to her knees and started stabbing at the tattoo on her arm of the Arlong Pirate symbol. She was crying and making incoherent noises, and she continued to stab her arm. Before Iris could get up to stop her Luffy was already at Nami's side and grabbed onto her arm.

"Luffy?" Nami said through tears. She looked surprised to see that he was still there, and she looked angry as Luffy took the knife out of her hand. "Why are you still here?! You don't know anything about this! I've already told you to leave!" she yelled at him as she threw dirt back at him. Nami sat there crying and throwing dirt, and Luffy just stood there taking it. Iris watched and regretted every awful thought she had had about the girl. This girl was fighting her own battle, and she was fighting as hard as she could. She had been fighting for such a long time, and now it was time for her to let other people help her fight.

Nami looked past Luffy to see that Iris and the others were all there too, and when her eyes fell on Iris she shrieked. "Why are you here?! Get away from me!" she screamed, and Iris pushed down the anger that was starting to rise up in her. Nami had a reason to be prejudiced against fishmen, even if Iris was different than the fishmen that Nami knew. She had been exposed to horrendous atrocities at the hands of the Arlong Pirates, and it wasn't fair to her. "You're one of them! All fishmen are the same!" she continued screaming.

"I'm going to make Arlong pay for what he's done to Nami..." Iris growled fighting back tears. She would make sure that he paid for what he had done to Nami, to this village, and the the other villages on this island. It was unforgivable to commit the crimes he had, and to further instill in people's minds that fishmen were awful, evil creatures. He harming the fishmen race by furthering the divide between humans and fishmen.

Iris got up and walked over towards Luffy and Nami, and Nami immediately started scooting backwards with horror in her eyes. Iris sat down on the dirt near Nami and looked the frightened and helpless girl in the eyes. "I'm sorry, Nami. You're a strong girl... You know that? Much stronger than I would have been in your situation. I'm so, so sorry..." Iris said and once again tears started flowing from her eyes.

"You don't have to trust me, and quite frankly nobody can blame you for that... But I will prove to you that not all fishmen are monsters!" Iris continued and bowed her head down. Iris had never bowed her head to anybody before other than her father or the old village chief, and it felt strange to do so now. It was, however, the only thing she could think of to do to try and convey her emotions.

"Please... Help me..." Nami cried out. Iris looked up and the girl was shaking she was crying so hard, and Iris couldn't help but reach out and pull the girl in to her in an embrace. Nami stiffened up, but she didn't resist as much as Iris had thought she would. Luffy reached down and put his hat on Nami, and screamed out that of course he would help her.

Iris held Nami for a few moments longer and then stood up. She wiped the tears from her eyes and turned around to follow the boys towards Arlong Park. "You can count on us, I swear it," Iris said as she walked out of the village. She could feel a fire building up in her heart, and she would use that fire to burn down Arlong and the fishmen that followed him.


	9. Chapter 9

Iris walked alongside her crew mates straight to Arlong Park. Iris' blood was boiling and she was ready for a fight. She could tell that the others were thinking the same thing even though they weren't saying it. Even Usopp seemed like he was ready to fight, though he would probably chicken out when they got there.

She was curious is the three fishmen that she had beat up earlier had made it back to Arlong Park yet and if Arlong knew that there was a fishman among the humans causing a ruckus on the island. She almost wished that she hadn't revealed that she was a fishman to them yet, but she couldn't take back what had already been done. Perhaps she'd be lucky and the three would still be out drifting at sea unconscious, and Arlong will be none the wiser.

They finally got close enough to Arlong Park that she was able to see the wall that surrounded it, and the villagers standing outside the gate. By the gate she could see Johnny and Yosaku sitting down not letting the villagers through. They did, however, look like they had gotten the crap beaten out of them and were covered in blood and bruises.

Before they reached the gate Luffy decided to make a grander entrance and stretched out his arm and punched a hole through the wall and ran straight through the rubble towards the fishmen. The wall crumbled at his punch and Iris could see Arlong and the other fishmen on the other side. Even sitting Arlong looked like an absolute monster next to the other fishmen. There was no doubt that he was much stronger than the rest.

"Who's the one called Arlong?" Luffy barked and Arlong looked pissed off. Iris looked around to see if the three she had beat up earlier were there, but she didn't see them. Perhaps the cat wasn't out the bag quite yet. She could use the element of surprise to her advantage; they wouldn't expect a fishman, or even a half fishman for that matter, to be traveling with human pirates. She was going to get to use her fishman karate against fishmen other than her dad today, and that was quite exciting to her. She could hardly wait to see the shocked looks on their faces when they realized that she was half fishman.

Luffy continued walking straight into Arlong Park and towards Arlong. A few of the fishmen tried to stop him, but he got them out of his way with little effort. These were the fishmen that had been in the village with Arlong and a few that she hadn't seen. There were three that seemed stronger than the rest, but they didn't send chills down her spine like Arlong.

"Who are you?" Arlong asked.

"A pirate," Luffy responded.

"What does a pirate want with me?" Arlong asked suspiciously as Luffy kept walking towards him. Suddenly Luffy stretched out his arm and punched Arlong square in the jaw and sent the giant fishman flying. The other fishman started running towards Luffy, but between her, Sanji, and Zoro none made it to him.

"Don't make my navigator cry!" Luffy shouted.

"Don't go running ahead like that," Sanji scolded Luffy as the group walked up behind him.

"Don't worry, I won't lose," Luffy replied.

"I wasn't worried about you, you idiot," Sanji grumbled.

"Don't hog all the fun, Luffy. I need a good punching bag for all this anger," Iris said with a smirk on her face. The fishmen stared at the group in shock and Iris couldn't say she was disappointed with their reaction. They had been the undisputed bosses of the island for years, and now somebody was challenging them. She was feeling confident that they would be the ones to come out victorious. Right now she was being driven by a fiery anger that wouldn't easily be put out by these fishmen.

"So you're all pirates, huh?" Arlong said as he stood back up from Luffy's punch. "All this fuss is over Nami... Well what do you think a group of puny humans will be able to do against us fishmen?!" Arlong screamed not masking his hatred of humans.

"Ahh! It's Roronoa Zoro! You tricked me!" another fishman yelled and pointed at Zoro. This one looked like he was an octopus fish man and he didn't look overly intelligent. "You lot aren't worth Arlong's time," he continued and held his long and cylinder shaped mouth in a way that he was able to make a trumpeting sound.

A large sea monster then appeared in the ocean inlet that was in the center of Arlong Park. It had the face of a dairy cow, and the body of a sea monster. It was huge, and the villagers that were looking on through the hole in the wall that Luffy had created starting freaking out. "It's kind of cute..." Iris thought out loud as she looked at it.

"It's him, huh?" Luffy said as he looked at the creature.

"So he's one of them..." Sanji said. The sea monster took one look at Sanji and Luffy and started to leave. Was this the sea monster they had hitched a ride on? They must have left a large impact on the animal if it was already giving up on fighting them.

"Momoo?! Where are you going?" the octopus fishman whined.

"Momoo.. Where the hell do you think you're going?" Arlong hissed. Momoo stopped in his tracks at Arlong's words and then turned to attack them. The creature was obviously no match for them, but Usopp started freaking out regardless. Then the other fishmen decided to follow Momoo's lead and attack them all.

Iris could feel her adrenaline rushing, but her excitement was stopped when Luffy told them that he would handle it. He pounded his feet into the concrete and started twisting his middle as if to wind himself up, and then stopped and reached out to grab onto Momoo's horns.

"I have a bad feeling about this... We should get out of here," Zoro said, and they all agreed with him. Usopp was already running off, and they ran after him as Luffy pulled Momoo out of the sea and started swinging the over sized cow around and causing all sorts of damage to the fishmen and the structure while yelling out "Gum Gum Pinwheel!"

"I don't want to fight these small fry! I want to fight you!" Luffy shouted angrily and pointed at Arlong. Arlong was glaring at Luffy with an evil grin on his face, and Iris could tell that Arlong was wanting to face Luffy too. Or to be more accurate, Arlong wanted to kill Luffy. Murderous intent was seething out of him.

Suddenly the three that Iris had thrown into the ocean came out of the inlet and she knew her secret not going to remain a secret any longer. Arlong asked them where they had been and what happened to them as the climbed onto the dry ground.

"We... We had trouble with one of the outsiders. They... They... Have a fishman in their group!" one of them said and Arlong's eyes widened. He looked over to them and Iris was tempted to duck behind Zoro so that they couldn't point her out, but it didn't matter. They would find out soon enough anyway. Arlong walked straight past Luffy whose feet were still stuck in the concrete, and looked at the three of them. When his eyes fell on her he knew that she was the fishman.

"What do we have here?!" he snickered with a smirk on his arrogant face as he looked at her. "You're a little half fishman aren't you?" he asked and she nodded her head. She stood her ground and put her hands on her hips as she glared up at him. "Aren't you a tough little girl! How cute! Why are you hanging around a bunch of humans?" he asked her in a condescending tone.

"Why does it matter to you?" she snapped back at him, and he laughed at her. That caused her blood pressure to rise further than it already was from the demeaning comment he had just made. She wasn't quite sure the best way to express her anger, so she decided on spitting in his face. She figured he wasn't one to take being disrespected well, especially in front of others and boy was she right. His expression quickly changed to anger and he grabbed onto her arm and lifted her off the ground.

"You stupid little bitch... Do you have any idea who you're messing with?!" he growled at her.

"Let her go," Zoro growled from behind of her and she could hear him starting to unsheathe his swords.

"What's this? Don't tell me this inferior human is your lover or something?" Arlong asked her.

"No, but I would be lucky to be with a human like him over you monsters any day!" she growled back at Arlong. She thought about struggling against him, but instead decided to stiffen her muscles and retain a pissed off posture. She was going to continue to dig at his pride by not being afraid or intimidated by him. Besides, if she struggled and couldn't loosen his grip it would just make her look weak, so she hung with her feet dangling just above the ground with her other hand on her hip and a smirk on her face. His grip was strong though, and the pressure was starting to hurt her arm.

"Monster?! You're a monster too, girl! Even being half fishman you're heads and shoulders above these pathetic humans! You should be part of my group; with us you would be able to stand on top of the world! We will rule the East Blue and then conquer the other seas, and I'd hate to see another fishman perish along with the weak and stupid humans!" he snarled at her.

"I said to let her go," Zoro said from behind her again.

"He's right; let go of the lady. I can't believe you stupid fish are okay with hurting a lady. How awful and crude... It's unforgivable," Sanji stated.

"Stay out of this Zoro! You too Sanji," she instructed them. She wasn't needing help yet, and with Zoro's injuries he shouldn't be putting unneeded stress on his body. "And I'd rather die with my friends than go along with murders like you! And now you've gone and ruined the image of fishman that my dad instilled in me," she growled at Arlong.

"What type of fishman are you?" Arlong asked her in a controlled tone ignoring what she had just said.

"Some type of shark," she replied. Being only half fishman it was much harder to determine which type of fishman she was, but between her teeth and aggressive personality her dad had said it was obvious that she was a shark-type fishman.

"A shark..." Arlong murmured and then let out a loud laugh. "You're a fiery little thing for a reason then. You really should join me. We could help you reach your full potential! These disgusting little humans won't be able to help you learn to use your skills to their fullest like we could! This is the opportunity of a lifetime for a half fishman like you!" he offered with a laugh.

"There is nothing an evil, murderous imp like you could ever teach me. Besides, this half fishman is already part of a crew," she taunted with a smirk still on her face. She could tell that she was getting to him, though he was trying his best to keep his cool and not let it show.

"Is that a tiger shark?" he asked as his eyes moved to her tattoo and she nodded her head while thinking of the best way to break free of his grip. "I used to know a Tiger Shark Fishman that lived in the East Blue... Are you Renji's daughter?" he asked and her eyes widened in shock.

"You know my dad?" she asked as she felt some of her anger slip away and turn into confusion. Had her dad known that these fishmen were in the east blue? Why hadn't he done anything to stop them?

"HAHAHA! Oh this is great! How fitting that Renji's daughter is a human lover just like he is! How is old Renji these days?" Arlong bellowed, but she didn't answer him. She was still in shock that Arlong knew her dad. That meant her dad had to have known that these fishmen were in the East Blue, but didn't tell her. Though with as evil as these particular fishmen were she didn't blame him; she would have wanted to come and meet them regardless of how awful they were strictly because they were fishmen. Still, she would have thought that he would have done something to stop these fishmen from acting how they had.

"You really should answer me when I ask you a question. I'm not a very patient man," Arlong said and she glared at him. He was an arrogant bastard who could never be half the man that her father was. Fishmen like Arlong deserved to be discriminated against she decided, and he gave a bad name to peaceful fishmen like her dad.

"I don't know how he is. He was taken by the navy four years ago because of an old bounty on his head," she hissed, and Arlong just laughed at her. His laughter immediately brought back her anger and she used all of her strength to kick the giant monster in the middle. That apparently set him off because he then bit into her left shoulder and she could feel the immense pressure from his jaw crushing her shoulder blade and his sharp teeth cutting into her skin

She screamed out in pain and reacted by kicking her knee up into his crotch as hard as she could, and he threw her away from him and into Sanji who caught her. The octopus and two other fishmen stepped in between Arlong and Iris. "Let us handle them, Arlong. If you keep getting worked up like this you will destroy all of Arlong Park," a teal colored fishman with big lips said.

These fishmen were obviously much stronger than the others here. If she had to guess she'd guess that they were officers of the Arlong Pirates. One was an octopus, another was perhaps a ray type, and she had no idea what the big lipped fishman was. He didn't have any defining features of a species that Iris could see.

"Are you alright, Iris?" Sanji asked her and she nodded her head while instructing him to put her down. Her left arm was pretty useless now, and it hurt like crazy, but she would still fight to the fullest of her extent. So what if her left arm was bleeding and her shoulder blade was crushed? She was right handed anyway, and so losing some function in her left arm really shouldn't be too big a deal.

"Hey guys... I'm kinda stuck here..." Luffy said but none of them were paying too much attention to him. The octopus looked like he was about to attack, and Iris was trying to figure out what he was doing. Her dad had forced her to study marine life so that if she came across fishmen that she would have enough knowledge to guess what their attack patterns could be. Looking back it was probably because he knew that these fishmen were in the East Blue and that she would probably come across them at some point.

"Guys... I think he's gonna spit ink at us to try and blind us. We should get out of his range," Iris said when she remembered that octopi had the unique ability to shoot out a black inky substance. Her, Sanji, and Zoro dodged the attack, but Luffy took the full brunt of the attack since he couldn't move.

"AHH! I can't see!" Luffy shouted.

"You dumb ass! Why didn't you dodge?!" Zoro yelled.

"I can't... I'm stuck... And now I can't see..." Luffy whined. Iris looked and sure enough his feet were still stuck in the concrete which would explain why he hadn't interfered when Arlong confronted her. She had expected him to jump in since he was dead set on defeating Arlong for Nami, but if he wasn't able to move then he couldn't interfere.

The octopus lifted a large piece of rubble from when Luffy had swung Momoo around and was going to drop it onto Luffy, but Sanji got in the way and kicked the rubble in half. "I sure picked a dumb ass captain to follow," Sanji complained while Luffy cheered Sanji on. "But it's still 100 times better than being part of group that would hurt women," Sanji continued and then asked Iris if she was going to be alright, or if he should go fetch a doctor for her shoulder.

"I'm fine," she replied trying to move her arm around to see how badly she had lost mobility in it. She could still move her hand and bend her elbow, but doing so sent electric shock like pain through her arm and up to her shoulder.

"You should stay out of this... You're hurt," Zoro said to Iris.

"You're joking, right? If Mr. Got Slashed by a Warlord and Almost Died can fight so can I. I'm not a weak little girl that crumbles once she's hurt, so don't treat me like one," she retorted feeling annoyed. She wouldn't stay back and let the boys fight when she was still capable of doing so. Especially when they were going up against fishmen. She could guarantee that none of them had faced a fishman before, and she would be essential to this fight.

"I never said you were weak. I can't read what that Arlong guy is thinking about you... What's going to happen if he takes out your other shoulder?" Zoro asked her without taking his eyes off the fishmen in front of him.

"I'm not afraid of Arlong. I'm just starting to get fired up for this fight," she stated confidently. Usopp was now trying to pull Luffy out of the ground, but his feet weren't coming out of the concrete.

"Fine, have it your way," Zoro mumbled and started walking up to where Sanji was in front of Luffy's stuck feet. It almost sounded as if he was really concerned about her, and she couldn't help but be happy at the thought. She knew that now was not the time or place to be thinking about such things, but she really did hope that Zoro cared for her like she was starting to care for him. That was all the more reason for her to keep fighting; perhaps if she continued to grow stronger he would respect her like she did him.

"Hey asshole, tell you what... If you guys pack up and leave now and promise to not come back, we might be willing to spare your lives," Iris decided to call out to Arlong ignoring the three standing between them and Arlong. She could tell from the hateful glare and barring of his teeth that Arlong wasn't entertained by her offer. "Don't say I didn't try let you off the hook," she taunted with a laugh.

Then octopus made a move to stop Usopp and Luffy, and Zoro stepped in with confidence exuding from his eyes. "They're busy... Why don't you play with me instead?" he said cockily with a smirk. Iris loved that smirk; it was the perfect combination of confidence, arrogance, and sexiness. Again, she knew this wasn't the time or place for those kind of thoughts, but she couldn't help it. This must be how Sanji felt about all women all the time... It made her feel sorry for him if that was actually the case.

Iris watched as the octopus started going after Zoro, but her attention was diverted when Luffy whipped past her and was flung into the fishman with the funny lips. Luffy snapped back into place where his feet were and looked disappointed, and she could hear Usopp shouting as the fishman with the funny lips started running for Usopp.

As the fishman ran Iris stuck out her foot and tripped the fishman right as he got next to her. The fishman went tumbling, but then got back up to his feet and glared at her. He instructed a few other fishmen to follow after Usopp while he stayed to deal with her.

"You must have quite the death wish... You should know that fishmen stand together, and you should have accepted Arlong's offer to join us. Now you've insulted Arlong and all us. You won't leave here alive girl. I'll personally make sure of that," the fishman said.

"Yeah, yeah. Enough with the empty threats," she scoffed and took a fighting stance, and then motioned with her hand for him to come at her with a smirk on her face. He looked annoyed, but he didn't hesitate to come at her. Since she was only really able to use one arm she would have to rely on fighting with her legs more than normal.

He ran straight at her in a manner that showed he was overconfident in his ability to take her on. She rolled her eyes at his obvious underestimation of her and swiftly kicked her foot up and bashed it straight into the side of his head. He was pushed to the side a few paces, but he wasn't as affected by the kick as she had thought he would be. He must be stronger than his goofy looks indicated, but that didn't matter. She would still take him down. "You're an idiot to take me lightly," she warned.

He looked like he was about to respond to her, but stopped and looked to Arlong. She followed his gaze and saw Arlong walking towards them with murderous intent flowing out of him. The octopus and the ray fishman tried to stop Arlong from entering the fight. Arlong must be considerably violent and destructive, she thought to herself, if the fishmen around him were constantly trying to prevent him from getting into fights like they were doing now and had in the village earlier.

"I'm not going to fight right now," Arlong growled, but kept walking towards Luffy. Luffy couldn't contain his anger at the nearing Arlong and punched Arlong in the face while declaring that he was going to kick Arlong's ass. Arlong caught Luffy's stretched out arm before it was able to return back to him looking even more pissed off now than he had when Iris had kicked him.

"You really think you pathetic humans can win against us?! One half fishman won't be enough to tip things in your favor," Arlong growled.

"What if we do?" Sanji quipped.

"You bet I think so! Idiot!" Luffy shouted.

"Actually, one half fishman is more than enough to guarantee that we'll win," Iris said in a mocking tone.

Arlong squatted down while continuing to hold onto Luffy's arm, and put the other hand on the ground in front of Luffy. Arlong dug his fingers into the concrete and Iris watched in awe as Arlong picked up the slab of concrete and lifted it into the air with Luffy. To be able to break through the concrete with just his fingers proved how strong the man was.

"It's said that devil fruit eaters can't swim and lose all their powers in the sea... We'll just see if that's true or not right now!" Arlong shouted while holding Luffy over his head. Luffy tried to punch Arlong again with his other hand, but Arlong opened up his mouth and caught Luffy's fist with his mouth and bit down. Luffy cried out in pain, but then bit down onto Arlong's arm trying to cause pain to the giant fishman too.

Arlong let out a loud laugh and threw Luffy into the water. "LUFFY!" Iris screamed and ran to the edge of the water and dove in to save her captain hoping that Zoro and Sanji would be able to hold the other fishmen back on land. She didn't have time to be getting into a fight in the water while her captain was drowning. She felt bad for needing Zoro to fight with the state his body was in, but she had no choice to rely on the swordsman.

She wouldn't be able to avoid a fight though, because funny lips fishman dove right in after her. She hoped to out swim him and get to Luffy who was sinking to the ocean floor, but the fishman grabbed onto her ankle and stopped her from swimming further.

"Let go of me, you scumbag!" she snapped and kicked her feet as hard as she could trying to break free from her grip. Her kicks were much stronger in the water, but unfortunately that meant that the fishman's defenses were also stronger. "You're going to regret messing with me!" she shouted.

She had vowed to herself when she set sail with Luffy that she would save him from drowning at any cost, but she hadn't planned on coming into contact with fishmen that would prevent her from saving him. At least not so early in their journey. She had figured by the time the could reach Fishman Island that she would be strong enough the handle full blooded fishmen like they were nothing.

Since his grip wasn't loosening at all on her ankle she swung her free leg and kicked him in the side multiple times quickly and hard enough that he coughed up blood. She swiveled her right hand in a circle as quickly as she could to start a small current and pushed the current back into the fishman and she was able to free herself from his grip.

"Hold on Luffy!" she called out to him as she swam towards him with all of her might. She had almost reached him when she felt hands on her legs and she was pulled back away from Luffy. "I don't have time to play with you right now," she growled.

She bent at the waist to look at the fishman, but instead saw a strong stream of water coming her way. She put up her still good right arm to cover her face and felt the water cutting into her skin. The amount of force behind the stream of water that the fishman was creating was much greater than she would have thought it would have been, and she could barely manage to keep her arm in front of her face. The pain from the water stream was starting to become unbearable, but she had to endure it. If she moved out of the way the water would go straight to Luffy who was lying defenseless on the ocean floor.

"You stupid little half breed mutt... You really think you can take on a full blooded fishman and win?! Arlong might have a tendency to look after all fishmen, which I suppose would include half breeds like you, but I could care less about that. I'm not sympathetic like he is, though. You're even worse than a human... And you have no place among either races!" the fishman hissed at her.

"What happened to the whole I should have joined you that you were just preaching?" she said angrily.

"I only said that for Arlong's benefit. You're still more disgusting than a human in my opinion," he said not able to hide the contempt in his voice

"Well I'd rather be a 'little half breed mutt' than a racist prick like you," she growled back at him and felt her temper starting to rage inside her. Though what he had said about Arlong being sympathetic towards her was a good bit of information.

His racism towards her being a half fishman had him somewhat distracted momentarily, and she was able to pull her legs out of his grip. She would have to deal with this idiot before saving Luffy though, or he would just continue to get in the way. Hopefully Luffy would be able to hold on for a few moments longer.

After breaking out of his grip she grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head upwards, wrapped her legs around his neck placing pressure on his gills with her thighs, and hooked her feet around his arms. He realized that she was trying to suffocate him and started to panic, but there wasn't much he could do. He wasn't able to breath, and his face started turning purple.

"It's not so fun to not be able to breath, is it asshole? I have no problem killing you right her and now," she said with a smirk as she tightened her grip on his hair and continued pulling his head up. Her arm was still hurting from his attack, but her anger towards the man made the pain bearable.

She could hear some people moving through the water and scanned the area to find Nami's sister and a man from the village swimming towards Luffy. There was no way they'd be able to lift him out of the water with the concrete attached to his feet, and with the added resistance that water added they wouldn't be able to break the concrete.

The fishman also saw the humans swimming towards Luffy and found a new strength inspired from his hatred of humans. He started struggling again, and with one arm being useless and the other being injured he was able to get her off of him. He started to swim towards Nojiko and the villager, and in the moment that he was distracted she swam to Luffy and used her fishman karate to do a rolling kick into the concrete with all of her strength and shattered to concrete.

"Your opponent is me!" Iris shouted as she picked up Luffy's limp body with her right arm, though with as injured as her arm was it took a lot of control to not show how painful it was to lift her captain. The fishman hesitated a moment when she called out to him and it was just enough time for her to swim to where he was and get between him and the two humans.

"The only way you'll get to these humans is over my dead body," she growled at him and handed Luffy to Nojiko. "Please help him while I deal with this," she pleaded with Nojiko. The fishman tried to get to the humans Luffy, and so she sunk her sharp teeth into his neck to stop him. Nojiko and the man looked at her in shock for a moment, and she motioned with her hand for them to go and they did. She was relieved that Luffy was going to getting out of the water finally.

Blood was coming out from the fishman's neck as she continued to dig her teeth into him and it clouded the water around them. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he put his hands on her face trying to remove her teeth from his neck, but her jaw was strong and she wouldn't let go that easily. She squeezed his middle with her legs and dug her heels into his sides.

He finally stopped struggling and she assumed that he had passed out from the blood loss. She waited a few moments longer and removed her teeth from his neck, and sure enough he had passed out. She unwrapped her legs from his waist and then kicked him in the spine and severed the connection between some of his vertebrae.

She was still absolutely enraged with these fishmen, but even though she had thought she would be able to kill them she couldn't make herself do it. She didn't know if it was because of the gravity of taking another's life, or if it was because she was having sympathy for them for being fishmen, but she couldn't. So instead she settled by breaking his back and more than likely paralyzing him.

She grabbed a handful of his hair and started swimming towards the surface of the water, though she wasn't able to swim very fast. He was much heavier than Luffy had been, and she wasn't in such a dire situation now that Luffy was safe. The arm she was using to pull him up was throbbing, but she was determined to make it to the surface with the beat up and unconscious fishman to show off her win.

When she got to the surface of the water she could see that Zoro and Sanji were both on the ground in front of Arlong, and the octopus and ray fishmen were both unconscious. They did good to take care of those tow fishmen, and now she take the fight over until Luffy got there. She drug the unconscious and injured fishman over near Arlong and dropped the body.

"How's this for some puny humans?" she taunted. He was fully enraged at this point and she thought he was going to lose it when he saw funny lips fishman beat up and unconscious. "He's not dead... Though I did paralyze him. I was somewhat disappointed by how weak he was," she said with a smirk on her face. She could see from the corner of her eyes that Sanji was trying to struggle his way back up to his feet, but Zoro looked like he was out of commission. He blood had soaked through all of his bandages and had was sweating like crazy.

"How could you do this to your own kind?" Arlong growled at her and put his hands around her neck.

"It was hard with how likable you guys are and all..." she said before he picked her up off the ground and she could feel her airways being constricted. Her left arm was hanging limp and useless, but she stuck her right hand on his large hands to try and hold herself up so she could breath. There was no way she could allow herself to pass out here.

"I know you've seen how hateful humans are to fishmen! Renji had to swallow his pride every damn day to pathetic humans in that stupid village, and I know you saw it! How can you side with humans still?!" he roared at her. She looked into his eyes and almost felt sorry for him, but he was beyond saving at this point. His hatred for humans ran too deep, and she couldn't forgive him for what he had to pay for what he had done to Nami.

"Put me down, Arlong," she gasped trying to get in a good enough breath to respond to him. His grip around her neck loosed slightly, but he didn't put her down. According to the funny lips fishman Arlong would have a hard time harming her too much because she was a fishman, and she would use that to her advantage.

"I can't answer you like this," she said as she caught a breath. He didn't immediately respond to her request, but eventually he did end up letting go of her and she dropped to the ground. She looked into his eyes and could see nothing but hatred in them, and she actually felt sorry for him. It didn't change the fact that he would have to pay for what he had done, but she could understand his disdain for humans.

"You don't have to answer this monster..." she heard Sanji say behind her as he made his way to his feet.

"Stay out of this, Sanji. I can answer him," she said. She looked at the blonde cook and saw a fiery rage in his eyes, and even though he was bloodied and beat up he was still willing to fight. She hoped that Luffy would come back soon as none of them were in a state to fight Arlong, but perhaps she could buy enough time for them by talking with Arlong.

"You're right, Arlong," she said as she turned her attention back to the giant fishman. "I've seen how awful, and hateful humans can be to fishmen. I've even wished that I could have been born a full blooded fishman so that my dad didn't have to shoulder the burden of discrimination by himself; I've loathed my human blood for making my life easier than my dad's. And I've beat up more people than I can count for treating my dad worse than dirt," she started.

"Then how can you say we're wrong?!" Arlong yelled at her.

"You're killing people! You're tearing apart families, and hurting innocent children! And the fact that you can commit such a heinous act so easily blows my mind. I thought I was prepared to kill your friend here," she said as she pointed to the still unconscious fishman, "but I couldn't do it. Even after he told me that I had no place among either fishman or humans. Apparently I'm an abomination to both races! But even with as angry as I was, I couldn't kill him!" she said trying to maintain her composure. Talking about her feelings was making her emotions rage, but her goal was to buy time until Luffy got there. She couldn't let her anger get the best of her right now.

Arlong looked down to the unconscious fishman and she couldn't quite tell what he was thinking. His expression had softened slightly, but she couldn't tell if that was because he was looking at his friend and feeling sorry for his friend, or if he was upset that his friend would treat another fishman that way.

"You just don't understand... His hatred of humans runs so deep. He... We can't forgive humans. We are the superior race, and yet they still treat us like trash! They think we're beneath them, but they can't breath underwater! They aren't as strong as us! This world should be ruled by us, not them! They don't deserve to live! You said Renji was taken away by humans... How can you forgive that?" Arlong growled.

"You're correct; it was humans who arrested him. But not because he was a fishman... That was because he was a wanted a pirate, and that's kind of what the navy does. I won't forgive the navy, but I don't hold the navy's actions against all humans," she snapped back at him.

Truth be told she had thought about the subject herself many times. Would the navy have let him live his life normally if he hadn't been a fishman? He hadn't been a pirate in 14 years, and it seemed ridiculous to arrest somebody that had been living peacefully for so long. Or perhaps if he hadn't been a fishman his location wouldn't have been reported to the navy. There were a lot of what ifs that she played out in her mind, but it didn't matter. All that mattered now was that she was going to rescue him.

"Renji is a disappointment to all fishmen. He had so much potential. He wasted it by joining a human pirate crew, then hooking up with some human woman, and then choosing to raise you in the human world rather than among fishmen. It makes me sick. He was a fool!" Arlong shouted, and Iris couldn't contain her anger any longer. It was one thing to insult her, but she would not allow him to insult her father.

"Don't you dare talk about my father! You'll never be even half the man he is!" she roared as she reached up and slapped Arlong across the face. The patience that he shown her so far was now gone, and he punched her with enough force to send her flying into the wall of the building beside them. The wall collapsed on top of her and pain shot throughout her body, but she forced herself to stand up and push the rubble off of her. Her left arm now had absolutely no mobility in it and she couldn't even move her fingers. She didn't want to think about how many bones in her arm were probably broken.

When she stood up she could see Arlong stepping towards Zoro and Sanji and she called out for him to stop. "I'm not done with you yet, you asshole! I won't let you put even a finger on any of the humans here!" she yelled at him.

Sanji was standing in front of Arlong, and Zoro was now sitting rather than lying down. Arlong was locked in on the boys and not listening to her. Neither of them were in any shape to be fighting, and Arlong wouldn't hesitate to kill them. He could have killed her, but he chose to get her out of the way instead. He had probably hoped to hurt enough that she wouldn't be able to get back up, but there wasn't killing intent in his punch.

"Hey fish breath... Listen to me when I'm talking to you! I don't take being ignored too well," she growled at him as she started to walk towards him. He still wasn't listening to her though, and she wasn't sure that she would be able to run fast enough to get in between him and the boys. Arlong went to attack Sanji, but was stopped short when an egg of all things hit him in the face.

After her initial shock at seeing the egg explode on Arlong's face she instantly knew that could only have meant one thing, and that one thing was Usopp. He really had no business butting into this fight as he wouldn't be able to hold his own against Arlong for even a few seconds, but anything to buy time would be good. She continued to hope that Luffy would regain consciousness any moment and burst onto the scene.

"Insolent humans!" Arlong roared as he wiped the egg off his face. Iris hurried her feet and got herself between Arlong and the boys. "Move, or I'll kill you too," Arlong growled but she refused to move.

"Get out of the way Iris," Zoro said from behind her.

"No way. You're on death's doorstep already, and there's no way I'm going to allow you to die here. I'm not going to let him harm any more humans than he has," she said firmly.

"I already promised you I wouldn't die, it that's what you're worried about," Zoro stated.

"Yeah... Well, I think you might need some help with that promise," Iris said. She looked to Arlong with a glare and waited for his reaction. If he wanted to reach the humans behind her he would have to go through her. He obviously felt a strong kinship with other fishmen, and that kinship had been extended to her, but she didn't know how long she'd be able to try his patience.

"ARLONG!" a female's voice shouted suddenly and Iris looked to see Nami standing there with a determined look on her face. "Arlong! I am going to kill you!" Nami shouted, and Iris hoped the girl wouldn't do anything too stupid. Sanji was staring at Nami in infatuation, though if he really cared to be a gentleman he should be getting Nami out of here. With how beat up the three pirates were there really wasn't anybody to protect the others from Arlong; running away was probably the best option.

Arlong's expression changed when he saw Nami and he started to laugh. He went on to explain to everyone there about all the times that Nami had tried to kill him in the past and how she had miserably failed each time. She didn't have what it took to kill him now or ever in his opinion.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you," Arlong said with a laugh. "You're going to be cartographer for the rest of your little life! I'm a reasonable man though, and I'd hate to chain down a young woman unfairly. I'll give you a choice. My plan is to kill all of these stupid and unworthy humans here... But if you willingly agree to be my cartographer I will spare their lives. These pirates have already pissed me off too much though; they're dead regardless. Well the human pirates, I'll make the little fishman girl realize her errors in sympathizing with humans," he bellowed with a loud laugh.

"I will never follow you!" Iris snapped at Arlong. But this wasn't about her; it was about Nami. It wasn't a fair thing to ask of Nami as there was only one answer that would guarantee the safety of the villagers.

Nami surprised Iris, however, when she turned to the villagers and apologized to them. She asked them if they would die alongside her, and the all agreed with a victorious shout. Though this situation was far from being a victory, Iris supposed that it was a victory for Nami. She had been trapped under Arlong for so long and hadn't had any freedom, and telling him no probably felt like a huge victory to her and the villagers that cared about her.

"Fine... I will kill every human here! I will start with these stupid, pathetic, and inferior pirates! And I will kill them in the most painful and drawn out ways imaginable!" Arlong shouted with rage. Iris couldn't imagine how much anger must be pumping through Arlong's body right now. In the 8 years that he had been on this island nobody had stood up to him, and now a group of pirates, Nami, and a village were all standing up to him at once. Iris felt satisfied to see Arlong so upset and angry, though it probably meant that they were all in for quite the beating.

Arlong's eyes were locked on the two boys behind her, but Iris wasn't going to budge. "I told you before, you have to get through me to get to them," Iris said. Just then she felt two hands on her waist and looked down to see Luffy's hands and arms reaching out from behind her. She looked over her shoulder and felt her eyebrow's twitch in disbelief when she saw what was going on.

"Luffy?! No! Stop!" she shouted when she realized that he was using her to turn his body into a slingshot. Her feet started moving on the ground when Luffy instructed Zoro and Sanji to get out of the way too. "You idiot, they can barely move!" she shouted back to him.

"Zoro! Sanji! Then grab onto Iris and trade places with me!" he yelled to them with a big grin on his face. Sanji happily put his arms around Iris, and as Iris' feet were lifted off the ground and she was being flung backwards Zoro managed to grab onto her legs. Luffy let go of her waist as he flew past her, but she kept going backwards and was sent back towards where the villagers were.

Sanji seemed to realize that when they stopped it would probably be because they crashed into something, and he positioned himself so that he would take the brunt of the impact when they did collide with something. He was as beat up as she was and really didn't need to shield her, but she couldn't deny that she appreciated the gesture.

They crashed into a tree and were stopped, and Iris made her way to her feet. "Are you alright Iris?" Sanji asked her and she nodded her head. She looked to Zoro who was probably in the worst shape of the three. His breathing was labored and his bandages were so blood soaked that they were starting to come undone. Hopefully there was a doctor among the villagers that would be able to clean and dress Zoro's wounds. She could wrap bandages and put antiseptic on the wounds, but that was really the extent of her medical knowledge.

She looked past the villagers and past Nami and saw that Arlong was now sitting on his butt. Luffy had probably collided with Arlong when he had traded places with her, Zoro, and Sanji. She was curious to see Luffy fight against Arlong since she hadn't been able to watch him fight against either Kuro or Don Krieg. Arlong would, however, make Kuro and Krieg seem like small fries.

Sanji started walking towards the gate where the villagers were to get a better look at the fight and asked if she would join him, and she looked to Zoro and shook her head no. She wanted to be with him in case his health took a turn for the worse and he needed help. She didn't really know what she'd do in that situation other than look for a doctor, but it would make her feel better knowing that somebody was watching him.

Zoro insisted he was fine though, and said that she should go support Luffy. She protested and said that she could support Luffy just as well from here as she could from a closer spot, but Zoro remained adamant that he was fine for now. She asked him if there was anything that she could do for him before she walked up front, but he just repeated that he was fine.

She let out an annoyed sigh loud enough for him to hear, but she did do as he requested and she walked up closer to watch the fight and support Luffy. She saw Nami standing at the front of the villagers, as well as Johnny and Yosaku. Usopp was there too standing to the side peeking through a small hole in the wall, and Sanji was sitting on the ground with a cigarette in his mouth.

Iris stood near Nami, and then glanced back to Zoro to make sure that he wasn't doing any worse. She then looked to Nami and Nami looked over at her with a halfhearted smile on her face. "Thank you for fighting for this village," Nami said politely. Iris couldn't tell what Nami was thinking, but she supposed it didn't matter. Once Arlong had been defeated Iris would have to try her best to earn Nami's trust and build a friendship; that would be her next goal on her journey.


	10. Chapter 10

Iris stood next to Nami and watched as Luffy and Arlong started to fight. It didn't seem like the odds of victory were in their favor with as monstrously strong as Arlong was, but all that Iris could do was place her hopes in Luffy and back him up if need be.

Luffy picked up some swords that were on the ground and started swinging them at Arlong. It was obvious by the swinging that he had no swordsmanship skills and Arlong blocked one of Luffy's strikes easily with his nose. He moved his long saw-like nose in a motion that flung the sword up into the sky and away from them, and he shattered the other sword with his teeth.

"Are you grasping at straws now pathetic human?! It's obvious you don't know how to use them!" Arlong said with a laugh.

"Of course I don't know how to use swords! Idiot!," Luffy shouted as he punched Arlong in the jaw. His punch had enough force behind it that Arlong's teeth broke. The humans watching were amazed that Luffy had managed to shatter Arlong's teeth, but that really didn't mean much to Arlong. Sharks had a unique ability to regrow teeth almost instantaneously. Sharks anatomy was structured so that they had backup teeth hidden in their gums that would quickly replace the teeth that had come out.

"Watch out Luffy! He'll regrow his teeth!" Iris shouted.

"Really? That's a strange skill, but it doesn't matter how many times he can regrow his teeth. He won't be able to beat me even if he regrows them a hundred times," Luffy said without taking his eyes off of Arlong. "And of course I can't use swords, stupid! I also can't navigate, fight in the water, cook, or lie," Luffy continued. Arlong looked puzzled as Luffy proclaimed what he could not do, but Iris couldn't keep a smile from forming on her face. Luffy knew he couldn't do it all on his own, which was why he needed a skilled crew. He listed off things that he couldn't do, however each of those skills were something that one of them possessed. Each one of them had a skill he needed, and him knowing that made him a much better captain than Arlong.

"How foolish! It must be quite difficult for these people to follow such an incompetent captain. Why even bother fighting to protect a captain that can't do anything? At least you realize how worthless you really are... Is there anything you can do?" Arlong bellowed.

"I can beat you," Luffy said with a grin. Arlong stopped laughing and glared at Luffy as broken teeth were replaced. Arlong started shouting about how insignificant and inferior humans were and went on the offensive. He started biting at Luffy and Luffy dodged Arlong's attacks. Luffy probably had no idea that if Arlong were to bite him in any vital area that this fight would be over; even if he was a rubber man there was no way his body was equipped to deal with a jaw like Arlong's. Even her jaw was a force to be reckoned with, though she wasn't fond of biting into others and getting the taste of blood and flesh in her mouth.

Arlong stopped biting at Luffy to explain that every time his teeth regrew back that the new set was stronger than the last, which Iris wasn't so sure about. He then put his hands to his mouth and pulled out the set of teeth, regrew the teeth again and pulled out another set, and then finally grew in a set that he left in his mouth.

While it was a handy skill to have it didn't mean that loosing teeth didn't hurt. She had lost teeth over the years and it still hurt just as much as she imagined it would hurt for a human. So with Arlong pulling out an entire set of teeth it would have to hurt quite a lot.

"This skill is a gift from the heavens that was bestowed on us! It is one more reason that us fishmen are superior to humans! You're going to regret having been rescued. It would have been better for you to have drowned quietly in the sea! Can you now see just how much better we fishmen are?!" Arlong roared.

Iris then noticed that Nami was looking at her from the corner of her eyes and Iris looked at her. Her initial reaction was to snap some sort of sarcastic remark, but she stopped herself. She would have to relearn how to interact with Nami, and it wasn't going to be an easy thing to do. The past week or so that she had been traveling with Nami she couldn't think of many times that she responded to the girl very nicely.

"Can you do that with your teeth too?" Nami finally asked.

"Yeah," Iris responded as she nodded her head. "I don't like to though. It hurts, and it's a rather ugly thing to do. It mostly comes in handy when I get into a fight and lose just a tooth or two," she continued. She could hear the villagers murmuring among themselves at her comment and she had to quiet the anger that was continuing to rise in her. These people had a reason to dislike her for being half fishman. She had to keep telling herself that these people were radically different than the racist pigs that she had seen go after her father.

When Arlong had finished his rant about how much better fishmen were than humans he started going after Luffy with the two sets of teeth in his hands and the set in his mouth. He looked ridiculous in doing so, but it was a strong attack despite how silly it looked. Luffy dodged Arlong's attacks for a bit, and then Arlong got in an attack that Luffy wouldn't be able to dodge.

Iris could feel fear start to take over her mind, but it was quickly relieved when she saw that Luffy had used one of the defeated fishmen as a shield. When Arlong realized that he had attacked one of his own kind rather than the human in front of him, he became upset. That feeling then turned to anger and he roared as he started trying to get Luffy even more furiously that he had been doing just moments ago.

Luffy managed to land a kick to Arlong's face with enough force that the giant fishman was sent backwards and a set of his teeth were knocked out. Iris wondered if perhaps Arlong taking out his teeth to use as weapons made his teeth more likely to come out on their own. It seemed like his teeth would have to be much looser than hers as she couldn't imagine hers popping out from a kick like that.

Luffy then proceeded to grab the teeth that had popped out and stuck them in his mouth. "Hey Iris! I've got teeth like you now! I can bite like a shark!" Luffy shouted and chomped the teeth together. He really should be taking the fight more seriously, but Iris couldn't help but laugh. He looked rather goofy with Arlong's teeth in his mouth, and nobody other than Luffy would come up with such an idea.

"Not quite. My teeth are better than Arlong's," she said tauntingly with a laugh.

"Aww... Can I have some of yours then?" Luffy asked.

"No," Iris replied.

"How long will you continue to insult me?!" Arlong roared and landed a blow on Luffy. It looked like Luffy was barely being able to dodge Arlong's attacks now, and Arlong was able to grab onto Luffy with one of the sets of teeth in his hands. Luffy cried out in pain and then bit down onto Arlong's shoulder with the pair of teeth he was wearing. Arlong was able to easily swat Luffy away though, and the teeth remained behind in Arlong's shoulder.

Arlong took the opportunity to brag about his race once more, and informed Luffy about how it wasn't just the teeth that made fishmen better than humans. Fishmen also had superior jaws, which wasn't entirely true. His statement held true for sharks like Arlong and Iris, but other types had jaws no different than humans. Saying that all fishmen had such powerful jaws was like saying that a house cat had the same force behind their bites that a lion did because they were both cats.

The continued fighting for awhile, and then Arlong disappeared. He had gone into the water right beside where they were fighting, and his dorsal fin could be seen poking out of the water as he swam. Luffy hadn't seen Arlong get into the water and thought that it was only a shark swimming when it was pointed out that Arlong was in the water.

Iris was curious to see what Arlong would do. Was he going to try and shoot water at Luffy as a weapon? Hopefully Luffy wouldn't do anything dumb enough that Arlong would be able to pull Luffy into the water. She didn't think she'd manage long in a fight against Arlong in the water to save Luffy in the state her body was in.

Arlong suddenly came shooting out of the water like a torpedo towards Luffy, and Luffy was barely able to avoid taking a direct hit. Arlong crashed through the building behind them with his saw-like nose piercing the wall. She could hear Arlong calling the attack "shark darts" as he tried to get Luffy again, but his nose got stuck in the concrete when Luffy dodged it.

Iris couldn't help but laugh at the stupid sounding name for the attack. She knew that it probably wasn't appropriate to be laughing while a battle was going on in front of her, but she couldn't help herself. Arlong took himself so seriously and yet he named his attack shark darts? Some of the villagers looked at her funny as she stood there trying to contain her laughter, and Arlong glared in her direction as he pulled his nose out of the ground.

"What is it you find so funny?" he asked her in a very controlled tone.

"Your attack... Shark darts? Really? You're telling me that's the best name you could come up with? Sounds like something a small child would come up with," as she tried and failed to contain her laughter.

"Does it matter what it's called when I will be skewering that pathetic captain of yours with it?" he asked. It was apparent that he was losing the control on his anger he was trying to keep as his voice started shaking a bit. His focus was completely off of Luffy now as she became the target of his anger.

"I can't figure you out. You want humans to take you seriously and to fear you, but you're so stupid! Stupid attack names, and your stupid feelings are hurt when it's pointed out. I can't take you seriously, so why would anybody else?" she taunted.

A new Anger then flashed in his eyes momentarily that sent a chill down her spine. She had seen that look once before, and it was the only time that she had ever seen her father lose control andbeat the crap out of a human. When she had been 14 and helping him out at the bar a pirate had come onto her, and her father called the pirate out on it. When the pirate didn't care that she was so young a furious anger came out of her father, and he beat the pirate to within an inch of his life. That was the same feeling that she had just gotten from Arlong.

"You're really trying my patience, girl. You keep running that mouth of yours and I won't hold back even with you being a fishman," Arlong growled. Iris was going to respond to Arlong, but she stopped when Luffy took advantage of Arlong's distraction with her and punched Arlong hard enough to send Arlong flying back into the water.

"You probably should have hit him away from the water..." Iris said.

"Yeah... That wasn't very smart, you dumb ass," Sanji agreed, and the other people around started encouraging Luffy to move before Arlong shot out of the water again. Johnny and Yosaku looked like they were about to pee themselves, and Nami looked concerned as well. It seemed that everybody other than Luffy was concerned about the situation.

Iris watched on as Luffy stood at the edge of the water and the people around her continued to urge Luffy to move, but he refused. Hopefully he had a plan that was better than his last plan of putting Arlong's teeth in his mouth. Luffy then put his hands in front of his body and held them there with a confident grin on his face.

"Gum Gum Shield!" Luffy yelled out as Arlong shot at him. Arlong was caught in Luffy's fingers and the Luffy shot backwards up onto the side of the building. They continued fighting for a bit until Luffy attacked Arlong again and completely pissed off the monster. Arlong's eyes flashed with the same anger that she had seen moments ago when she had made fun of him, but this time the look in his eyes didn't disappear.

"He looks just like a pissed off Sea King," Sanji observed out loud. She had never seen a Sea King before, but she had no doubt that the look on Arlong's face was something similar to that of what most would consider a real monster. Luffy had better be careful with this fight.

Iris looked over her shoulder to see how Zoro was doing, and he still looked to be in awful shape. She was about to walk back to him since there really wasn't anything she could do currently to help Luffy, but her attention was drawn back to the fight when everybody started making noise about a weapon that Arlong had pulled out. It was a large sword/saw type weapon. It had the handle of a sword, but the blade was jagged like a saw. It was long and looked quite sharp.

Arlong tried repeatedly to get Luffy with the weapon, and started attacking the building as he chased Luffy up it. When they disappeared into the building she decided to go check on Zoro. She felt kind of torn about walking away from the fight, but at the same time she was worried about Zoro. Besides, if she couldn't see what was going on with the fight she wouldn't be able to help out.

When she got next to Zoro his eyes were shut and he seemed to be struggling to breathe. The bandages around his chest didn't look like bandages any longer from all the blood that had soaked through them, and he was definitely running a fever. If something wasn't done about him soon he very well might die.

"Luffy's beating him, right?" Zoro asked her.

"Yeah, I think so," she replied.

"Good. I'll kill him if he loses," Zoro said. His voice was strained; he shouldn't be exerting the energy to talk right now. She didn't know how he was still conscious with as much blood as he had lost, and there was no point in asking him if she could do anything for him because he would insist he was fine. She had only known Zoro for less than two weeks at this point, but she had already figured out that he was incredibly stubborn and didn't accept help from others easily.

When she heard some crashing she looked back to Arlong Park and saw furniture and papers falling out of the building where Luffy and Arlong were fighting. Suddenly something broke through the roof and continued stretching upwards, and then the building came crashing down. Debris started flying as the building collapsed and some of the debris was flying straight towards her and Zoro. Iris stood up and used her remaining strength to kick the large chunks of debris away from them as it fell.

She looked back to Zoro who was now sitting up and taking off the bandages that were peeling off anyway. "We really should find you a doctor..." she said but he shook his head and said that they should go make sure Luffy was alright first. "That stubbornness of yours is going to get you killed," she continued and he looked back up at her with a glint in his eyes and a weak smirk on his face; apparently he took her words as a compliment.

She held out her hand to help pull him to his feet and he grabbed onto it. She winced at the pain that shot through her joints when she pulled him up, but tried to ignore it. If Zoro, who was worse of than her, could overlook his pain then she could do it too. Once he was steady on his feet they started walking towards the now flattened Arlong Park just in time to see Luffy break out of the debris.

"NAMI!" Luffy shouted, "You're part of my crew! Don't you ever forget that!"

"Okay," Nami responded with tears streaming down her face. Iris thought about giving Nami an official welcome to the crew, but decided against it. They had kept a large distance between themselves up until now. Iris having sudden change of heart about Nami would be weird for both of them.

"Good job, captain!" Iris shouted cheerfully instead. Beating a monster as strong as Arlong was no simple task; he had blown away her expectations with beating the fishman as quickly as he had.

Suddenly there was a few new people near the villagers and Iris saw red when she noticed that it was a navy officer. The navy officer was going on about something or another, but Iris wasn't listening. The rage shooting through veins was even more intense than she had ever felt.

She quickly ran through the villagers and jumped onto the unsuspecting officer and pinned him to the ground by sitting on his torso and holding his hands back with her still functioning right arm. The others with the navy officer tried to get her off of him, but between Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp they never made it to her.

"Get off me you filthy pirate!" the navy officer cried out. She positioned her legs so that she could place pressure on his knees while still keeping his legs down, and made it feel like she would break his knees. There was no way she would be able to do so from this position, but he seemed like a stupid enough man that he wouldn't know that.

"Please! Don't hurt me! Spare me!" the man cried out as she increased the pressure on his knees.

"How dare you ask me for mercy! You people didn't show my father mercy!" she screamed at him.

"I-I-I don't know what you're talking about!" he stuttered with a horrified look on his face.

"Four years ago a Tiger Shark fishman was arrested in the east blue. Where is he?" she screamed and the officer didn't answer her. She managed in all of her fury to get her left arm to work and she slapped the man across the face letting her nails dig into his skin as she did so. The pain as she slapped him was electric and immense, but it didn't matter. After four years of not being able to do anything to help find her dad, she was now face to face with a naval officer. Even if this man didn't have a hand in the arrest or her father he still belonged to the navy; he was guilty by association.

"I will kill you right here and now you piece of shit!" she growled.

"P-P-Please! D-D-Don't kill me! I don't know where the fishman is! I do remember his arrest... But I don't know anything else, I-I-I swear! You won't get away with doing this to me!" he squealed. This man must have absolutely no pride to openly act so terrified of her. That made her hate him even more.

"Your answer isn't good enough," she growled. She bared her teeth at him and fought the urge to sink her teeth into his neck. That would be the easiest and quickest way to end his life, but she wanted to keep herself above that. She didn't want that image ingrained in her friends' minds. Especially Nami.

"You're a monster! You're like Arlong!" he shouted when he made the connection of her being a fishman. Apparently he was so stupid that he didn't figure it out when she was asking about the fishman that was arrested, but showing her shark teeth made the connection clear.

"I'm nothing like Arlong!" she roared at him. "I'll give you one more chance. Where is the Tiger Shark fishman that was arrested four years ago?" she continued, trying to remain at least a little composure. If she lost it now she would look like a monster, and she couldn't let that happen. Not with what theses people had gone through. She couldn't let them think that all fishmen were monsters like Arlong.

"I said I don't know! I mean... I know he's imprisoned somewhere in the Grand Line, that is if he's still alive. But the Grand Line is large, and there are lots of prisons!" the man said and her anger rose even higher. She released his hands from her grip and used her right hand to punch him in the face breaking his jaw. How dare he suggest that her father might be dead!

"Iris... I've got some business with him too," she heard Nami say from behind her. She didn't move off the man, but she stopped pounding him in the face. Nami crouched down by the man's face and punched him with all of her might.

"You will give back all of my money that you stole from me, and leave it on this island. You won't take any of the treasure or money from Arlong Park either; it all belongs to the villagers here," Nami instructed. The man had tears running down his face and nodded his head in agreement. "If you go back on your word I'll let her kill you," Nami continued.

Iris knew by Nami's statement that she was now expected to let the man live. She hesitated in getting off of him though; it would take every ounce of control in her body to not kill him. She finally forced herself to stand up, but not without kicking her heel down straight into his torso as hard as she could, and then again in his crotch.

"You got lucky this time... You had better hope and pray that we never meet again. I will kill you without hesitation next time," Iris growled and then walked away from him.

"Remind me not to make you angry... You're kinda scary," Usopp said to her with a laugh obviously trying to lighten the mood somewhat. Iris forced a smile at him, but knew there was no way that it came across as genuine. Her blood was still boiling, but at least she got a little information about her dad. He was somewhere in the Grand Line, so she was safe to leave the East Blue with Luffy and the others.

With her anger still raging she decided to walk away from the others and let herself cool down. She looked around Arlong Park and saw the defeated bodies of the fishmen scattered around the park. The navy would soon come in and clean up this mess and arrest all the fishmen, and the only evidence of Arlong's terrible rule would be in the memories of the people that lived through it.

She walked to the rubble and kicked pieces of it over with her feet looking to see if there was anything of value. Perhaps there would be a sword. She still needed a sword of her own so that Zoro could teach her how to use one, and a free sword would be preferable to buying one somewhere. When she found a sword she bend over and picked it up. Hopefully this would be a good enough sword for him to teach her with.

As she looked at the bodies of the fishmen she couldn't help but be utterly disappointed. This was not how she had envisioned meeting other fishmen would go at all. She had hoped to meet others that would welcome her as one of their own, and be good and decent people. Instead she met very hateful fishmen that she wanted nothing to do with.

She had also learned that it wasn't just the humans that were racist. Fishmen were racist as well, and perhaps she didn't have a place among them after all. She wasn't fully human or fishman, and she had never thought about that being a problem for the fishmen like it could be with humans. The thought upset her after putting fishmen on such a high pedestal all those years, but it was probably good that her eyes were opened to that fact.

That racism would also make the friendships that she was building with her crew mates feel that much more important. Only time would tell, but she had a feeling that these people would continue to not care about her heritage. She had seen how protective Luffy was of his crew mates on this island; he was willing to turn this island upside down for Nami. Zoro had shown that he was protective of her when Arlong had grabbed onto her, and Sanji would be protective of her because she was a woman. She would never like being treated different because she was a woman, but the fact that being half fishman didn't change his opinion of her made her happy nonetheless.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see a man from Nami's village behind her. "I'm a doctor. Let's get your arm set," the man said and she agreed. She looked around for Zoro who needed much more immediate attention than she did, but didn't see him. "If you're looking for your green haired friend I had your captain take him back to the village already," the man explained.

She followed the doctor to the village and into a building. The doctor offered her one of the beds, but she declined and sat on a chair. The doctor quickly bandaged up Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp before turning his attention to Zoro.

"Doc, you should treat her before you treat that moss head! Ladies first!" Sanji protested.

"I'm fine. My arm won't get any more broken while I wait. He probably should have treated Zoro first," Iris said.

"But-" Sanji started but she told him to stop. She could understand the doctor quickly bandaging the others since it wouldn't take more than a few minutes, but her arm would probably take a bit to fix. Sanji offered to wait with her until her arm was fixed, but she told him no and sent him outside.

The doctor went to work on Zoro and Iris could hardly watch. He cleaned the wound and then started stitching up Zoro. Zoro was screaming out in pain as the needle and thread pierced his flesh to sew him up. After what seemed like an eternity of hearing Zoro in pain the doctor finished and turned his attention to her.

"Alright... This is probably going to hurt. I'm going to apologize in advance," the doctor said. The doctor examined her arm and shook his head multiple times as he looked her over. "Arlong really did a number on your arm. You'll be lucky to get even close to normal use of it again," the doctor said.

"You should be more positive, Doc. Tell me I'll heal up and my arm will be even stronger than it was before," she replied. The doctor laughed a little and then told her to brace herself for the pain. He set her arm and she clamped her jaw shut to try and prevent herself from screaming. The pain of setting her was even worse than when Arlong had inflicted the damage.

After her had set her arm he put some splints along her arm and wrapped them tight with bandages. He wrapped up her shoulder too after treating the wound from Arlong's teeth and braced it so that it would heal in the correctly. He then put her arm in a sling and instructed her not to even think of using it for a minimum of 4 weeks. That wouldn't happen, but she told him that she would do as he said.

"That's a pretty good tattoo," the doctor said as he looked at her tattoo. "The line work is pretty steady," he continued, and she asked him about his obvious interest in tattoos. He got a big grin on his face a bragged that he wasn't only a doctor, but also a tattoo artist.

"Oh, well I've been wanting a new tattoo. I don't have a way to pay for one right now though," she said, and he said that he'd do it for free because of her help in defeating the Arlong Pirates. He asked her about what she want, and she told him that she wanted the symbol on the flag for their pirate group. He left her in the room and returned about 15 minutes later.

He sat down at his desk and quickly drew out a sketch of the skull and crossbones with the straw hat, and it was perfect. She didn't want anything too big, and she wanted it in a navy blue ink that matched her original tattoo that was placed under her left collar bone. He was hesitant to do anything to the left side of her body because of the injuries, but agreed to do it.

When he was done with the tattoo he handed her a small mirror and she couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face. It was absolutely perfect! The pain of getting the tattoo had been nothing compared to getting her arm set, and so it was barely noticeable and now she had a new tattoo that would always remind her of time on this island and of her friends. This place would not be something that she would forget.

She thanked the doctor and walked out of the building to find Sanji and Usopp sitting on the porch outside. Sanji lit up when he saw her and she turned her attention away from him. Usopp was staring at her new tattoo and she grinned.

"Like it?" she asked and pointed to the new tattoo.

"That's my design from the flag!" Usopp shouted with pride. "You liked it well enough to get it tattooed on you?" he asked and she nodded. She explained that it was perfect for a tattoo because it was a representation of their group. She would always be tied to them with this mark on her body. It was kind of cute how happy Usopp was that she had his design tattooed on her. He looked like a giddy child whose artwork was being displayed by their parent.

"Ooh! You're even more sexy with a new tattoo! I love it!" Sanji cooed. She couldn't tell if he was staring at the tattoo or if he was really just staring at her chest, and if it wasn't for the fact that she was tired and sore she probably would have hit him. She let it go for now, but that didn't mean she'd let it go the next time it happened.

"Where did Luffy wander off to?" she asked them and they both shrugged their shoulders. She decided she would wander around and find him, though it wasn't like she had any particular reason to find him.

As she walked through to village it was filled with a joyous atmosphere, and there was good reason for it. These people had been imprisoned by Arlong for almost a decade and now they were free. There was a celebratory party planned for tonight and their pirate group had been invited, but Iris felt a little hesitant about getting too involved. The people here were wary of her, and she didn't blame them for that. The doctor was the only one she had come across so far that treated her with the same attitude he treated her crew mates.

She could feel the eyes of the villagers on her as she walked through the town. She took a deep breath trying to calm her nerves, and knew that she had to hide her annoyance at all costs. She kept repeating to herself that she couldn't be upset with these people. She knew she had an easily triggered temper, but today she was really finding how deep it ran through her. She knew 100% that these people were not at fault for being suspicious of her, but that didn't seem to stop her blood pressure from sky rocketing when they looked at her.

"Looking for something?" she heard a female voice say from behind her, and she turned around to see Nami's older sister. Nojiko walked up to Iris with a friendly expression and no obvious suspicion in her eyes. Considering everything that Nojiko had been through Iris didn't know how Nojiko could approach her so easily.

"I was looking to see where Luffy had gone off to..." Iris replied.

"He's over trying to sneak food that's being prepared for the big feast tonight," Nojiko said with a laugh. That seemed like Luffy alright. More often than not food was on Luffy's mind, and it seemed like he was always hungry.

"How's Nami doing?" Iris asked Nojiko changing the subject.

"She's doing better than I've seen her in years. I think she's really excited to be leaving here with you folks. She keeps talking about her new friends, and how she's going to be able to accomplish her goal of creating a map of the world. You guys must be pretty amazing to win her over like that," Nojiko replied and Iris didn't respond. She knew that Nami seemed to get along with the boys just fine, but at best the two girls had put up with each other on the boat.

"She means you too, ya know. She knows none of this is related to you. And she mentioned something about how seeing you act so emotional was weird. She was embarrassed for you," Nojiko said with a wink and Iris felt her face turn red.

"I'll get her for that comment..." Iris mumbled and Nojiko laughed. Nojiko also suggested going and talking to the villagers and getting to know them. It would probably be awkward since they all found out during the fight that she was part fishmen, but they would still be grateful to one of the people who helped defeat Arlong and his gang. Nojiko thought it would be good for them to get to know a fishman that wasn't entirely evil.

Iris watched as Nojiko walked away and was still annoyed that Nami would say such a thing about her. She had gone through a range of emotions today that she wasn't used to dealing with. Dealing with the emotions, in a way, was even more exhausting than the fight against the fishmen had been. Expressing her emotions to Nami had been difficult and unnerving, and the only thing Nami took away from it was that it was weird?

Iris tried to push the thoughts out of her head, but she couldn't quite shake the annoyance as she continued walking through the village. An older woman called out to get her attention and Iris walked over to her. She had a kind smile and kind eyes as she held out a glass of iced tea to Iris.

"I know it's not much, but it's hot outside and this is my way of saying thank you for freeing us. And for freeing Nami," the woman said. Iris smiled and grabbed the glass while thanking the woman. "You look like you're quite beat up... I'm sorry that happened to you," the woman said and Iris responded that it was nothing. While Iris stood there talking with the old woman a few other villagers sheepishly joined the conversation. After a few minutes had gone by all the awkwardness that was present in the small group left and Iris saw that these humans didn't hate her; they had no idea what to think of her since they had never met a fishman that wasn't part of the Arlong Pirates. They seemed to come to the conclusion that she was a good person, and they were okay with her.

After awhile had passed she excused herself from them and decided to walk back to the doctor's place and see how Zoro was. When she had left the room he was passed out and hopefully on his way to recovery. She realized that she had left the sword she picked up back there too, and so she needed to get it as well.

It took her much longer to get back to the doctor's place than she had anticipated because people kept stopping her to see if she was alright, and to thank her for her part in defeating Arlong. She realized that the villagers that had been staring at her weren't necessarily staring because they disliked her, but because they didn't quite know what to think of her. Once the old woman broke they ice by giving her a drink the rest of the town seemed to have been given a green light. She was happy that her suspicions about them were wrong.

When she got back to the doctor's place Zoro was now sitting out front, Sanji was running around trying to hit on the women, and Usopp was standing on a structure singing a song about how great he was to anybody that would listen. The feast had started, and the sun was starting to set into the horizon.

"How are you feeling?" she asked Zoro as she sat down on the porch near him.

"I'll be fine once I sleep it off," he replied. She could now smell all of the food that was around and her stomach growled. She thought she should go get some food before it all disappeared, but then Sanji appeared out of nowhere with a plate full of food for her. He asked her if she needed anything else and she asked him if he would go find something to drink; preferably some whiskey but she'd take any form of alcohol. She was capable of doing so herself, but sending him off on some mission would get him away for a bit longer.

She asked Zoro if he had seen Luffy and replied that he had, but Luffy was busy stuffing his face and was on a mission to find some meat and melon dish. Zoro then noticed her new tattoo and asked where she had gotten it, and she told him about how the doctor was also a tattoo artist.

"Huh... Well I guess that means you can't change your mind on being part of this crew," he said.

"I wasn't planning on changing my mind," she replied.

Sanji showed back up and sure enough he had found some whiskey for her. He didn't know if she had wanted it on the rocks, straight, in a mixed drink, or for shots so he brought her a bottle. She thanked him and took the bottle from him. She opened it up to smell it and was quite happy with it. It smelled warm and smokey, and just how good whiskey should.

She almost drank straight from the bottle as she had done many times back at home in her bar, but she knew that probably wasn't the best idea with all these people around to watch her. She went and found a couple of glasses and returned to her seat to find Zoro sleeping once again. She put the glasses down and poured some whiskey in a glass for herself.

She sat down and sipped on the whiskey letting the alcohol warm her throat as it went down. Not only was it good whiskey, it was strong. She could feel the pain in her left arm starting to diminish as she drank the alcohol. She rested her head against the wooden pole next to her on the porch and watched and the villagers celebrated their long awaited freedom. In that moment she was glad that she was able to be part of something so wonderful, and it didn't matter that she was half fishman and half human to any of these humans. All that mattered was that the evil that plagued this island was gone.

She woke up the next morning not remembering having fallen asleep. Somebody must have carried her off the porch, because she was on a bed inside the doctor's place. She went to push herself up and winced when she put pressure on her left arm. She quickly shifted her weight onto her right arm and sat up. She swung her feet over the edge of the bed and stood up. She grabbed the sword she had found at Arlong Park and walked out of the room.

The first thing she saw when she walked out was a grumpy looking Zoro being lectured by the doctor on how he needed to take better care of his body. She walked up to them and thanked the doctor for taking care of her once more, and for the tattoo. The doctor smiled at her and Zoro complained that it wasn't fair that doctor was so much nicer to her than him. The doctor continued lecturing Zoro but changed the subject of the lecture. If Zoro wanted people to be nice to him then perhaps he should be more pleasant like Iris was.

Iris excused herself from them and started walking back to where the Going Merry should be. When she got to it the ladder was already lowered, and so she stuck the hilt of the sword in between her teeth and climbed up the ladder with her still functioning right arm.

When she got on board she was surprised to see that somebody had planted some full grown tangerine trees on the ship. She was curious where they came from and why they were there, but she didn't see any of her crew mates on board yet to ask.

She then walked to her and Nami's room to see if Nami had taken all the money she had earned the couple days she worked at Baratie. She set the sword against the wall and much and to her surprise the money was still tucked away in her bag and kicked under her bed where she had left it. She stuffed the money back in her bag and shoved it back under the bed. Had Nami not seen where she had stashed her money? She had figured that Nami had been watching her every move up until when she took off with the Going Merry yesterday morning.

She plopped down on her bed and let her mind wander to the events from the past 24 hours. Her mind was significantly clearer now and her emotions had settled back down to a more normal place. She had learned a lot on this little island that she would take with her on her travels with Luffy and the others. The most important thing she had learned was that her father had been taken to the Grand Line, thought that piece of information wasn't entirely helpful with as big as the Grand Line is. It still was a piece of the puzzle though, and it was more than she had known before. She had also learned that fishmen could be just as racist as humans, and how ugly hate was.

She could clearly see why her father had been so intent on trying to teach her to love humans. She imagined that there were plenty of fishmen just like Arlong who hated humans with a burning passion, and that hate turned them into relentless monsters. She knew that she would have to work on herself to be more like her dad. Her current reaction to people tended to be anger, but she couldn't let herself turn into somebody like Arlong. Hopefully traveling with Luffy would prevent that; she had now found a group of humans that she could call friends.

When she could finally hear some noise coming from other parts of the boat she hopped off her bed and made her way out to the main deck. She found Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp were all there and they were saying goodbye to Johnny and Yosaku. The only person they were missing was Nami now.

"Oh, you're already here!" Luffy exclaimed when he saw her. His normal goofy grin was on his face, and his straw hat placed on his head. She smiled back at him, and as she walked closer he seemed to notice the new tattoo on her chest. "Is that a real tattoo?!" he shouted, and she nodded her head yes with a laugh.

After Luffy had finished gawking at her tattoo he changed the subject and said that they should get going. Iris asked him about Nami, but he said that she was the one who said that they should set sail. Did that mean that Nami had changed her mind after all? Iris could blame her if she did, after all she had just been freed along with the entire village and it would be tough to leave that.

Sanji started whining about wanting Nami to come along as the anchor raised, but he stopped when they all noticed somebody running through all the villagers that had assembled to see Nami off. The crowd was making noise and Iris was able to see that it was Nami rushing through the crowd.

When Nami got to the edge of the dock she jumped and somehow managed to land on the boat. Iris was surprised that Nami had been able to as she hadn't figured Nami was that athletic. Sanji immediately started fawning over Nami as the villagers were making an unhappy ruckus as the boat started to sail away. Nami got a large grin on her face and started dropping wallets from her hands and pockets.

At first the villagers seemed upset to have their wallets stolen, but that didn't last. They started yelling for her to come back soon and about how much they would miss her and Nami shouted back her goodbyes to everybody she was leaving behind. Nami had a genuine looking smile on her face, and Iris hoped that they'd be able to start things off on the right foot this time.

Nami turned towards the rest of them and her smile faded slightly when her eyes fell on Iris. Iris sighed and asked Nami if they could go talk in private for a bit. Nami hesitated, but did agree to go talk with her. Sanji was protesting them leaving him with just the guys, but he stopped when Iris shot him an angry glare.

The two walked back to their room and once they were in with the door shut behind them Iris turned to face Nami, and put her hand out towards Nami. "Hi, I'm Iris. I'm half fishman and half human. I like fighting, and am going to rescue my dad, a fishman, from wherever the navy has him imprisoned," Iris said feeling stupid, but this was the first thing that popped into her head to do. She wanted to start over on their relationship, and she wasn't sure how to best express that. Hopefully Nami would understand what she was trying to get at.

Nami looked at her strangely, but then laughed and put her hand in Iris' and shook it. "Hi Iris, I'm Nami. I like money, and tangerines. I'm going to make a map of the world," Nami said. Iris smiled at Nami, and they each sat down on their beds sitting across from each other.

"I know it'll probably take awhile... But, I really do want to work on being friends. I can't take back the hell that Arlong and his gang put you through, and I know you've got a lot of scars left by them. I'll show you that we're not all the same," Iris said.

Nami looked down at the ground and they sat in silence for awhile. When Nami looked back up she had a fake smile on her face. She said that she knew that all fishmen weren't the same, just like all humans weren't the same. Her words weren't convincing though. Iris knew that Nami was at least trying, but it would take a lot trust on both of their sides before they would truly be friends.

"Aaand... I think I may have liked the angry Iris that I saw since we left your hometown more; it seems to fit you better," Nami said with a laugh when Iris didn't respond to her the empty sounding words.

"That's right... Your sister said something about that..." Iris mumbled as annoyance rose up in her. Nami laughed again, though this time the laughter seemed a little more genuine. Apparently getting a reaction out of Iris was funny to Nami, and that just made Iris more annoyed.

"Let's go back out to where the others are, maybe Sanji's cooking breakfast," Iris said as she stood up from her bed trying to look past her annoyance. Nami nodded in agreement and they walked back out where the others were. Iris could smell being cooked in the kitchen, Zoro was sleeping, and Usopp and Luffy were talking.

"Where are we headed next, navigator?" Iris asked.

"I've got the perfect place in mind," Nami responded.


	11. Chapter 11

Shortly after they had left Nami's home island the boat was set for their next destination. They would go to Loguetown. It was an island also known as the beginning of the end, and it was where the Pirate King Gold Roger was born and executed. It also a convenient location to stop and stock up on supplies before entering the Grand Line.

Sailing to Loguetown would take a few days. Iris was thankful that the people from Nami's village had stocked up their ship with food for them, but the supplies wouldn't last more than a week or so. She also found out where the tangerine trees had come from; they were from Nami's mom's garden. They were a memento of her mom and her home. They also served to add something unique to the ship.

Sanji finished preparing the breakfast that he was making and they all filed into the kitchen. It all smelled and looked delicious. They all sat around the table and Sanji handed plates of food to her and Nami before giving food to the boys. The food he handed her and Nami definitely had more care put into it as well.

"Why does theirs look better?" Usopp whined.

"Because they're ladies. Ladies deserve better than you men," Sanji replied.

"Here Usopp, we can trade if you like. I've already told with him that I don't like special treatment," Iris said and held out her plate. Sanji pouted as Usopp traded plates with her, and both her and Usopp laughed.

"That's not right Iris! I made that especially for you!" Sanji whined as Usopp started digging into the food.

"Uh huh. But I'm fine with this, it's still delicious," she said as she started eating. Sanji was still pouting, but it seemed to make him feel a little better that she still found his food to be good. He then sat down with them and started eating too.

After the meal was done they all left the kitchen other than Sanji. Luffy went to sit on the head of the bow or his special seat as he called it, and the others went their own way as well. Iris walked over to the side of the boat and looked out to the horizon. There was nothing in sight but the ocean. If she had known how calming being surrounded by the ocean like this would be she would have set sail years ago.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and her quiet was interrupted. She turned around to see Usopp standing behind her with a grin on his face. He proudly told her about how he had taken down the fishmen that had chased after him during the fight with Arlong and she listened. She didn't know if this story was made up or not, but part of her hoped that he was telling the truth. He wanted so badly to become a brave warrior, and that would mean learning to face his fears. He would have to learn some courage if he really wanted to be a brave warrior.

"So... Uh... I was wondering... I know I'm already so strong and all, but... Could you teach me how to fight when your arm is feeling better?" Usopp asked her.

"You want to learn martial arts? I thought you were more a fight from afar kind of guy?" she asked.

"I am... I'd much rather fight from a distance if I can. But what if something comes up where I can't? If those fishmen had caught up to me I probably would have been killed. Please?" he pleaded.

"Why are you asking me? Why not ask one of the boys?" she replied.

"Well... I don't think I could learn much from them. I can't stretch like Luffy, I don't have a desire to become a swordsman like Zoro, and I don't think Sanji would do it because I'm not a girl'," he said.

"So I'm your last choice knowing all of them wouldn't be a good fit to teach you?" she asked.

"What?! No! But you asked why... Uhh... You're an amazing fighter! Who wouldn't want to learn from you?! You're the perfect person to teach a brave warrior of sea such as myself!" he shouted with a nervous laugh. She laughed at his response to her question. She could always count on getting a reaction out of the boy. Honestly she took it as a compliment that he would approach her and ask for help.

"Alright. I'll help you out, but on one condition. I want to know you're serious about this, and so if you can manage to catch me I'll start teaching you," she said.

"Like right now? Even though your arm is still broken?" Usopp asked with a hint of confusion in his voice.

"If I had both arms fully functioning you'd never be able to reach me, kid," she responded with a smirk. He was way overestimating himself if he thought he'd be able to land a blow on her. Honestly she'd probably have to just let him punch her at some point, but watching him try for awhile would be entertaining and it would show his resolve to become stronger.

"I'm not a kid!" he shouted and threw a punch at her, but she was easily able to move out of the way. He continued trying to land an attack on her, and she decided to stop dodging and block his punch with a counter blow. She picked her foot up off the ground and kicked her ankle into his shoulder hard enough to knock him down and send him skidding to the side on his butt.

"Sorry, kid. It'll take more than that," she said. He grumbled under his breath about not being a kid and then walked away from her. He would have to grow up considerably before she wouldn't consider him a kid. When she was the age he was she was living on her own, running her dad's bar, and continuing to master different forms of martial arts. He may have been living on his own, but he hadn't done anything very productive with his life. He lived off telling lies and playing make believe with a bunch of children.

She then decided that she could stand some alone time, and went to find a spot on the upper deck at the back of the boat where nobody was and sat down. She tried to move her left arm hoping that she would somehow possess some of the superhuman healing abilities that Zoro possessed, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Her arm wasn't moving like her brain was telling it to, and that was frustrating to her. This wouldn't be something she could work through like the injury to her back that she had taken from the Black Cat pirates.

Since she wouldn't be able do anything that would require the use of her left arm she would have to train other ways. She kicked her legs out to the sides so that she was sitting in the splits and leaned over onto her right arm and stretched out her back. It was nice to finally have some quiet time to herself after how hectic the last 24 hours had been. She'd prefer to jump into the ocean so that she could ensure that nobody would bother her for awhile, but she didn't figure her bandages were water proof and she didn't really want to do anything that might mess with what the doctor had done to her arm.

After she had finished stretching she tried to find productive ways to do some strength training with the use of only her right arm. She went and found a cannonball and went back to where she had been training. She started doing some sit ups while cradling the cannonball against her torso, holding it while doing squats and lunges, and then she tossed it up in the air and got into a one handed handstand and caught the cannonball with her feet. She held the handstand for awhile to practice balancing on her right arm, and when she was bored with that she continued on to other exercises.

When she decided it was time for a break she sat back down and rested her back against the side of the ship. She looked up at the sky and guessed it was about noon with the sun being almost directly over head. There was a warm breeze blowing and it looked like it was going to be another pleasant day. They had been lucky so far and hadn't come across any storms or rough seas.

After sitting for a bit she decided she would go get some water. She picked up the cannonball to put it back and walked towards the storage room. Usopp was waiting around the corner hoping to ambush her, but she dodged his attacks with little effort and the tossed the cannonball at him. He caught it and the weight caused him to fall to the ground.

"Go put that away for me," she instructed. He nodded while looking disappointed, but he did as she asked. She went into the kitchen to find Sanji preparing what she guessed to be lunch with Luffy begging for a snack. She walked past them and grabbed a glass and got some water. Sanji asked her if she needed anything, but she turned him down. Luffy started shouting about how it wasn't fair that she could have something while he wasn't allowed to and she walked back out of the kitchen before she could get caught up in Luffy's whining any more.

Iris found Zoro sleeping in the same spot he normally was and sat down next to him. He looked remarkably well considering he had looked like he was knocking on death's door yesterday. It was hard to believe that it was just yesterday that Mihawk had slashed Zoro; yesterday morning seemed like an eternity ago with all the events that had occurred yesterday.

"How's your arm feeling?" he asked her without opening his eyes.

"It still won't move. And sorry... I didn't mean to wake up up," she said and he responded that he hadn't been sleeping. She looked to her arm that was still hanging in the sling that the doctor had given her and was frustrated. She had hoped that by working out for a bit might ease some of her frustrations, but it hadn't. She really hoped that it would start working again before the four weeks that the doctor had told her not to move it. She didn't think she'd be able to last that long without being able to swim or train fully.

"How are you feeling? You've got to be in worse shape than I am... You pushed yourself way past your limits yesterday," she said.

"I'll be fine. It just means that I have to get stronger," he replied.

"Yeah, well don't push yourself too hard. It would be bad news if that wound opened up again since we don't have a doctor on board," she cautioned him. The doctor had done a good job sewing up Zoro, but that didn't mean that the wound wouldn't open again if he put too much stress on his body. She wasn't wanting to deal with him having a gaping wound again.

Zoro was definitely now sleeping beside her; she could hear the snoring as he dozed. His pain level still had to be through the roof with how beat up and battered his body was, and it was amazing to her that he was able to sleep without any sort of pain medication. She wasn't sure that she'd be able to sleep so easily with the pain her arm and shoulder were causing, and he should definitely be in more pain than she was.

She looked over to him as he slept and a small smile formed on her face before she could stop it. She was falling for him and there wasn't anything she could do to stop. Every moment she spent with him she could feel the attraction she felt for him start to grow into something more. Not only was he attractive and strong, he was also loyal, hard working, a great swordsman, and ambitious. He had even managed to show concern for her on multiple occasions yesterday even when he was barely able to keep himself going. He must care for her at least a little, even if it was just as another crew member.

Whenever she was with him like she was right now she was happy. It was strange for her to have a human make her so happy without even trying, but it made her happy all the same. She would tell herself that she was ridiculous for feeling so giddy, but at the same time she kind of enjoyed the feeling. It was a foreign feeling, but not an entirely bad one.

Really the strangest thing about her crush on Zoro was that the prideful and skeptical Iris had willingly let her walls down for him. When he hadn't minded that she was half fishman and even saw it as advantageous for their crew she had practically let the walls she kept up around herself fall down completely. He more than likely had no idea how hard it was for her to share that information with everybody, but that was okay.

Even stranger than her crush on a human was the fact that she was now letting her walls down for multiple humans. She didn't care for the others in the same way that she cared for Zoro, but she was now attached to a few humans. If somebody had told her she would feel this way even just a few weeks ago she probably would have punched them in the face while telling them how stupid they were.

It was almost unfathomable to her that she was traveling on a boat with five humans that knew she was half fishman and that she mostly liked. She would even put herself in harm's way to protect these people which that was also strange to her. She had spent so long believing that no humans would ever accept the fishmen blood running through her veins and guarding her race like a secret that she didn't entirely know how to handle these people who didn't care. She would have to learn, though it wouldn't be easy for her. She knew herself well enough to know that she would keep questioning it in the back of her mind for awhile.

Her favorite reaction to her secret had come from Luffy; he thought she was cool. Luffy was somebody that she would gladly follow as he chased his dream. He was strong, and he cared for all of them immensely the moment they joined his crew. He was also cheerful and carefree; two things that Iris was not. She felt happy being around him though, and that was unusual. Her skeptical nature seemed to fade away a little when she was around him. She was sure that Luffy and her dad would get along greatly. In fact Luffy probably had more in common with her dad personality-wise than she did.

Her feelings towards Nami were much more complicated. She wanted to like Nami and to trust her, but that was something she would have to work on. Her eyes had been opened to why Nami acted the way she did, but now that her emotions had settled a bit she was trying not to revert back to being annoyed with Nami. All of Iris' dislike for Nami could be tracked back to Nami's racism towards her, but now that she knew why Nami was the way she was Iris knew she couldn't blame Nami that. Even with how mixed up her feelings towards Nami were Iris knew that she'd put her life on the line to protect Nami. She would definitely prove to Nami that not all fishmen were evil.

Iris had found herself viewing Usopp like a little brother. She didn't have any siblings, but she figured that having him around was about as close as she'd get to having a little brother. He was somewhat annoying, a coward, and a liar. At the same time he was also kind of endearing and she was finding herself feeling protective of him. She was rooting for his success in his goal of becoming a brave warrior of the sea, and she wanted to see him become stronger and face his fears.

The only person on their crew that she was still struggling to care for was Sanji. She hated more than anything being treated differently for being a girl, and he was constantly treating her differently than the boys. He might think he's being a gentleman or chivalrous, but he he truly was a gentleman he'd respect her wishes. She had told him on numerous occasions that she didn't like how he treated like she needed to be protected, but he didn't seem to listen. She would have to sit him down and thoroughly explain to him how she felt. He was a good cook though.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by Nami suddenly shoving a piece of paper in her face. Iris looked at the piece of paper and blinked a few times to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. She grabbed the paper our Nami's hands and wasn't sure how to feel about what she was looking at.

The piece of paper was a freshly printed wanted poster with her face plastered on it with a bounty of 15,500,000 berries on it. Most of the bounties she had seen had from bounty hunters over the years in her bar ranged from 3,000,000 - 9,000,000 berries. Her bounty was no doubt that high because she had beat the crap out of that disgusting navy officer. In fact that was probably why she was the only person other than Luffy to get a bounty.

She looked up to see that Luffy was holding out a wanted poster for himself with a bounty of 30,000,000 berries on it. He was grinning from ear to ear about his new bounty while Usopp happily pointed out that the back of his head was in Luffy's wanted poster.

"Did anybody else get one?" she asked and the others shook their heads.

"Just you and Luffy. These came with the newspaper this morning, so everybody in the East Blue now knows who you are. This means that we'll need to get our supplies in Loguetown and get out. It would be best to get out of the East Blue quickly and not draw attention to ourselves. Especially you two. Bounty hunters and the navy will be on the lookout for you two," Nami said.

Iris nodded her head compliantly and looked back to her wanted picture. The picture was from the waist up and taken from the side. She looked like she was looking at something on the ground. She had a glare on her face and the bite mark from Arlong was visible on her left shoulder. She assumed that the picture was taken as the navy left to go back to their ship and she was trying to calm herself by looking through the rubble of the collapsed Arlong Park.

The reality of what was happening then started to set in. She was a wanted woman. This meant that she would no longer be able to return to a normal life, though it wasn't like she had planned on that. The only pirates that they let off the hook were ones that went to work for the World Government in some capacity like the Warlords. She had no plans on ever cooperating with the government, so she would have to become strong enough that she couldn't be caught.

This wasn't a bad thing though. It meant that she was seen as a threat by the very people she detested the most. She wondered what the people in Orange Town, especially the old chief, thought about this. They surely had the newspaper by now too. Would they be disappointed in her? Would they be proud of her for making a name for herself as she set out to rescue her dad? She would love to be a fly on the wall in her home village as they saw the wanted poster.

"You've been nicknamed by the government too," Nami said and Iris looked back to Nami. Nami handed Iris the paper and she looked at a small article about them. The article specifically mentioned Straw Hat Luffy, and Fishman Iris. She wasn't so sure that wasn't just a description of her rather than a nickname, but if that's what they wanted to call her she supposed it was fitting. She wouldn't have to worry about hiding her heritage any longer either.

The article then went on to describe Luffy as being a very dangerous pirate, and her as an aggressive fishman monster. She would never be okay with fishmen being stereotyped as monsters, but she was okay with the government describing her as a monster. She wasn't a monster in the same manner as Arlong was, but she desired monstrous strength that would cause enemies to fear her. She would become a monstrously strong woman who the navy and other pirates feared.

The article also mentioned that there were four other members in their crew, and that they were all to be considered dangerous individuals. She didn't consider the group dangerous because they wouldn't harm civilians, but she supposed the navy didn't care about that. All pirates were evil and dangerous in the eyes of the navy and the World Government.

Iris handed the newspaper back to Nami but held onto the wanted poster; she was going to keep that and hang it on the wall above her bed. Nami was still going on about her concern over their bounties on her and Luffy, but it was bound to happen eventually anyway. If they weren't able to become notorious pirates that had bounties there was no way that they would accomplish their individual goals or for them to help Luffy to become the Pirate King.

The rest of her day went by fairly uneventful. Usopp continued to try and land a punch on her throughout the day, but failed every time. She gave him a new stipulation for the next day that for every time he attempted and failed to get her that she would hit him back. He didn't seem crazy about her new rule, but he chose not to complain about it to her.

It was now long past sunset and she was in bed not able to sleep. She wasn't able to get comfortable because of the pain in her arm and shoulder, so decided it would be better to get up rather than to continue tossing and turning and wake Nami up. She got up and walked out of her room and out onto the main deck of the ship.

The night was cool and there was a slight breeze blowing its way over the sea. She made her way to the side of the ship and leaned against the railing and watched as small waves rolled their way across the sea and then noticed the stars that were reflected on the surface of the water. As it always did, watching the ocean had a calming effect of her. Her pain wasn't lessening, but it was now more bearable.

As she started to finally grow drowsy she sat down with her back leaning against the side of the ship. She shut her eyes hoping that she might be able to finally fall asleep, but opened her eyes again when she heard somebody walking towards her. She saw Sanji walking her way with a beverage in hand. Iris figured that he was probably on watch tonight and saw her out here by herself.

He handed it to her and she could smell a fragrant tea and the warmth from the cup felt nice. She thanked him for the tea and he started to walk back towards the kitchen, but she stopped him.

"Sanji... Can I talk to you for a little?" she asked. He turned back to her with a grin on his face and she couldn't help but felt a little bad. This was not going to be an nice conversation for him, but since the others weren't around to interrupt it was a good time to tell him how she felt about him. Even if she wasn't crazy about the cook she didn't necessarily want to hurt his feelings either.

He sat down next to her and she took a deep breath as she tried to find the best way to start the conversation. She finally decided just to go for it and explained to him how much she detested being treated differently because she was a female.

"If you want to have any sort of good standing with me you need to treat me no differently than you do the boys. I've told you this already... Multiple times. But you don't seem to listen... Or if you are listening you're not taking me seriously. If you want to be a gentleman then you should respect my words and not make me continually repeat myself," she explained.

"Well..." he started as he put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. "I can't help myself. Why would I treat a beautiful woman the same way that I treat a man? That just doesn't make sense to me. Women deserve to be treated well and protected," he continued.

"See? You're not listening to me. I don't need to be treated differently or protected. I'm not fragile or delicate. It pisses me off when I'm treated like I can't handle things myself," she said. His comment made her blood pressure rise as it showed that he didn't respect her enough to listen to her, but she tried to conceal her anger. She knew she would need to at least attempt to get along with him since he was part of the crew, but it wasn't going to be easy if he refused to listen to her.

"I know you're strong, and that you're not fragile. If you were fragile you wouldn't have been able to face Arlong like you did, but that doesn't change that it's in my nature to protect and wait on women. I can't help it," he said as he exhaled the smoke from his cigarette.

She sighed and knew that she wasn't getting through to him. He was going to continue to treat her in a manner that made her uncomfortable, which meant that she was going to continue to avoid dealing and interacting with him.

"So what I'm hearing is that you don't care that your behavior makes me dislike you," she stated.

"I... I do care. I just don't think I can treat you like I would a man... But... How about we compromise? I'll try to treat you with a little more neutrality to make you happy, and you can give me a little leeway when I want try to be more helpful for you than I would for Luffy or that stupid moss head. I don't want you to dislike me," he said.

"I suppose compromise is alright for right now. If I can see that you're trying, then I guess I can't be too mad at you. But if I think you're not actually trying then I'm going to smack you," she responded. He smiled at her like he had just won a big victory by getting her to compromise. She knew though that it wouldn't be fair to ask him to change his behavior towards her 100% immediately. She would try to resist becoming angry if she could see some changes.

He sat there next to her for awhile longer as she sipped on the tea that he had brought, and then excused himself. She closed her eyes once more as she set the now empty cup down next to her. She felt good about getting that conversation done and over with. Now she would just have to wait and see if he actually tried to change his behavior.

When Iris woke up the next morning the sun was starting to rise up over the horizon. She was still outside, and somebody had placed a blanket over her while she slept. She pulled the blanket off and stood up. She tried again to move her arm, and this time she was able to get her hand to move slightly. The pain from moving her hand was strong and sharp though, and she grunted as the pain shot up her arm and through her shoulder. It felt like somebody was taking a knife and stabbing it into her arm repeatedly.

The next thing she knew Usopp was trying to sneak up on her, but he wasn't as sneaky as he thought he was. Even with her back to him she was able to duck out of his reach, and grabbed onto his fist with her right hand. She threw him over her shoulder and onto the ground in front of her so that he landed with a thud. She stomped her foot down right next to his head and he whimpered as he prepared for her to hit him.

She couldn't help but laugh at his fear of her; she wouldn't do anything that would injure him. Since she knew she was going to get a reaction from him regardless of what she did to him she tapped him in the head with her foot, and he cried out.

"Are you sure you want me to teach you to fight?" she asked with a laugh.

"Y-Y-Yes! I'm going to become a brave warrior of the sea... I have to be able to fight!" he shouted. She laughed at his enthusiasm and extended out her hand and he grabbed onto it. She pulled him up to his feet and listened to him go on about how great he was going to become. He knew that he would become the most notorious of any of them as they sailed the Grand Line. That wasn't going to happen, but she let him tell his stories anyway.

The next couple of days went by smoothly as they sailed towards Loguetown. Luffy was continually trying to steal Nami's tangerines while Sanji fought him off, and Usopp tried to land a punch on her to no avail. She had shown Zoro the sword she found and he agreed to teach her how to use it when her arm was fully healed. Sanji even didn't get on her nerves as much.

The day they arrived at Loguetown Iris decided to remove the sling from her arm. Her arm was finally starting to regain some of its mobility, though it still hurt. Nami helped her re-wrap the arm and make sure that the splints were in place correctly. If they had a doctor on the ship this would be easier... Hopefully they would find a doctor to join them soon.

The Going Merry docked at a port in Loguetown and they all got off the boat. Iris brought along the money she had earned while working at Baratie hoping that she'd be able to find some things to take along on their journey. All that she owned was what she was wearing, a spare pair of pants, a small backpack, and the sword she had picked up at Arlong Park. Of course there were communal belongings that were on ship like the medical supplies and the food, but it would be nice to at least have a few more outfits and perhaps some things to workout with like resistance bands and some weights.

They stood at the entrance to the town and Iris was in awe of the size of it. She had never been to such a large town before. In a town this big they should all be able to go unnoticed fairly well. Everybody had different goals as to what they wanted to find and do while they were in the city, and so they all started going their own ways. They agreed to meet back up at a certain time later that day and head to the Grand Line.

Other than finding some things for their journey Iris also wanted to look around and see if there was a naval base. She could see marines walking around which led her to believe that there was a base somewhere around. Nami would tell her to stay away from it, but maybe she would be able to find some more information about her dad's whereabouts at a base.

If she did find one she would have to bite her tongue and control her anger there so that she wouldn't cause a scene, but perhaps she would be able to find a list of the people that had been arrested in the East Blue. If she could find that then maybe she could find where her father had been taken to. It wouldn't be easy to keep her cool and remain calm in a base, but it was important. If she gave away that she was a pirate while she wasn't in fighting shape it would be a bad thing for her.

She went to go on her way and explore the city, but before she was able to leave the docking area somebody grabbed onto her arm from behind. She spun around to see Nami standing there with a sly grin on her face.

"Let's go shopping together. We both need some clothes, and I'll help you pick out some cute clothes. Maybe even something Zoro would notice," Nami said.

"I don't think he notices things like clothes..." she said and then felt her face turn bright red when she realized what she had just said. When had Nami noticed that she was into Zoro? And now she would have a hard time denying it with how she had just responded to Nami. Did the others on the crew realize this too? She really thought she had been a little less obvious about her crush on him.

"Don't worry... I won't tell them. But I'm right, aren't I?" Nami gleefully said. Iris didn't respond and Nami quickly shouted that she knew that she was right. Nami continued holding onto Iris' arm and started leading Iris into the city towards what looked like a shopping district.

"Don't be so hesitant, Iris! Shopping is a good girl bonding time activity. This will be fun!" Nami said in a tone that Iris didn't like. It wasn't an annoying or accusing tone like she was used to getting from Nami. This was a much more mischievous tone that made Iris nervous as Nami pulled her into a clothing store. She now had a feeling that this wasn't going to be a very fun day for her...


	12. Chapter 12

As Iris and Nami went into the first clothing store that Nami saw, Nami started piling up clothes for both her and Iris to try on. None of the clothes were Iris' style; they were all way too feminine, revealing, and fancy for Iris. She preferred clothes that were easy to move in and breathable. Athletic wear was more in her comfort zone.

"Go on! Try those clothes on, and make sure you show all of the outfits to me," Nami instructed as she pushed Iris into a fitting room. Iris dropped the clothing and looked at it wondering how she was going to try all of this on without the use of her left arm. She could move it a little better but it still hurt quite a bit, and this was a tight fitting clothing that would require both of her arms to move.

"I don't think this is going to work..." Iris said to Nami who was standing on the other side of the fitting room door.

"What do you mean it isn't going to work?" Nami asked and opened the door. Iris pointed to her left arm that was hanging limp at her side and Nami walked into the fitting room. "Well then I'll just help you! We'll share a fitting room!" Nami said and Iris sighed. She had hoped that her arm would excuse her from trying on all this crap.

Nami picked up one of the dresses that she had picked our for Iris and between the two of them they were able to get it on her. Iris looked in the mirror and knew instantly she would never wear a dress like this. It was a vibrant red that clashed with her light purple hair, it was too tight for her comfort, and it showed off way too much cleavage. She couldn't imagine a situation where a dress like this could even be a possibility for her.

"If you'd stop glaring you'd actually look nice in that," Nami said.

"I'm not sure what you're looking at... I look stupid," Iris grumbled.

"Oh come on. It's a beautiful dress!" Nami said. Iris rolled her eyes as she looked back to her reflection in the mirror. She couldn't pull off a dress like this. Not only did the dress color clash with her hair, but a fancy dress looked strange with her tattoos.

"You can try it on then," Iris said and tossed the dress at Nami after managing to get it off. She grabbed her pants that were sitting on the ground and put them back on; they weren't a problem to get on even with only one arm. She would probably need some help with her shirt though.

Iris looked back to Nami to see that Nami had indeed put the red dress on. It looked good on Nami and was more fitting on somebody like her. Nami was more feminine that Iris was, and she seemed comfortable playing up her sex appeal. Iris had a tendency to look down on girls that used their sex appeal to get what they wanted, but she was trying to not be judgmental. There probably was nothing inherently bad about playing up one's sex appeal even if it wasn't something she would ever do.

After they had both tried on the clothes that Nami had picked out for them they got back into their own clothes and left the shop. The worker in the shop seemed annoyed that they had taken so much time trying on clothes without buying anything, but Iris knew the instant she walked into the store that she wouldn't be buying anything there.

The next store that Iris got pushed into was more her style. There was a good sized selection of athletic wear in the shop and she made a beeline for that section. She started leafing through the clothing looking for things in her size that she could train in and fight in. She found a few pairs of loose fitting sweat pants that would fit nicely and a couple tank tops that felt breathable enough and was happy with the items.

"Come on Iris... How are you planning on getting his attention with boring clothes like this?!" Nami said and Iris tried unsuccessfully to stop her face from flushing.

"I really don't think he cares what I wear," Iris stated trying not to let the embarrassment she was feeling be conveyed in her voice. She had had a feeling that Nami would bring it up again, but she still didn't want to talk about it. She had no reason to be embarrassed about being caught being attracted to Zoro, but she was. She didn't think that he felt the same way about her, and if he found out it might make things awkward between them. She didn't want that at all.

"I think you're wrong. He might be oblivious and stupid, but he's still a guy. You can't tell me that he doesn't notice at least a little," Nami said.

"That's mean. How would you like it if any of us called you stupid?" Iris asked trying to keep her voice calm. She had already figured out that Zoro wasn't the brightest bulb, but he had plenty of other qualities that Iris respected and that made up for it.

"I wouldn't care because I'm not stupid. I'm probably the smartest person on the ship! He really isn't very bright though. You can't possibly tell me you think that man is smart! Quite honestly I'm not sure why you're attracted to such a brute," Nami snickered and Iris had to resist the urge to make an angry or sarcastic remark. Nami was purposefully poking Iris' buttons and trying to get a reaction out of her. It was taking a lot of control to not react to Nami, but she wasn't going to give in. She was a stubborn girl and would dig her heels in when she felt she was being challenged, and right now that challenge was to give an angry response.

"Perhaps I like brutish men. Strength is attractive," Iris responded with a grin instead of responded in anger, and Nami raised her eyebrows. Nami was probably expecting an angry response from Iris, not an honest one.

"Seriously... Why do you like that muscle head? There are plenty of strong me who are also smart," Nami said.

"It doesn't really matter, does it?" Iris asked and Nami sighed and shrugged her shoulders. Iris had no reason to talk about this with Nami. Even if she was trying her best to be more friendly with the girl it didn't change the fact that she still had some reservations about her. There were still trust issues between them that would take time to work out. There was no way that Nami's prejudices against fishmen disappeared when they took down Arlong and his boys, just like Iris' defenses wouldn't be completely lowered just from learning Nami's background.

"When did you notice?" Iris asked hoping to change the subject away from why she was attracted to him.

"Not to long after we set sail from Usopp's home. I've been watching you since day one... I mean, neither of us trusted each other, so I paid more attention to your actions and so it didn't take me long to figure it out. Your expression softens when you're talking with him, and you watch him when you think nobody is looking. I don't imagine any of the boys have picked up on it, but you can't hide things like this from my watchful eye!" Nami said with a wink.

"If you tell any of the others I swear I'll throw you overboard," Iris said.

"I won't tell them! I can keep a secret... Besides, I've now got something that I can hold over your head," Nami said with a laugh and Iris immediately glared at the girl. That wasn't funny if it was supposed to be a joke, though Iris had a feeling Nami meant it.

"Don't look at me like that! I'm not that awful of a person! It's a joke!" Nami said, though Iris didn't believe her. Nami had spent her whole life manipulating people to get what she wanted. Even if Nami was really part of their crew now that Arlong was out of the picture habits like that don't just go away. Iris turned back to the clothing and started looking through it again.

"If you're going to insist on getting athletic wear then at least get some cuter stuff! Here! Try these! Get a swimsuit too since you like to be in the water so much!" Nami said as she started stacking up clothes for Iris to try on. She followed Iris into a fitting room to help her change and decide what was cute enough to buy.

The first outfit she put on was a pair of tight fitting black running leggings that hit a coupling inches above her ankle, and a soft pastel blue loose fitting cropped tank top that hung just above her belly button. She wasn't used to showing off her figure so much, but she had to admit she looked good. These clothes would probably be better if she jumped in the water in them than what she usually wore. The sweatpants she normally wore got heavy in the water and took awhile to dry out, but the leggings seemed like they'd be less of a pain to deal with.

She tried on a few different pieces, but none of them were calling her name like the first outfit she tried on. She ended up decided on getting a couple pairs of the running leggings in black, and a few of the tank tops in different colors. She also bought a swimming suit. That was harder to decide on because they all show more skin than she has a desire to show. She settled for a light purple bikini top that practically matched her hair color, and a black pair of swimming shorts that covered her butt unlike the bikini bottoms.

She grabbed a few other things in the shop then went to pay for it. She handed the money to the cashier who hesitated to take the money from her. The cashier looked at the webbing on Iris' fingers and then back up questioningly. Iris shot the judgmental cashier a glare when she saw a slight disgust in the cashier's eyes.

"Did you want my money or not?" Iris snapped.

"Yes. I mean, of course," the cashier said while looking back to Iris' hands.

"It's webbing. Doesn't that answer any question you might have?," Iris snarled as she dropped the money in the cashier's hands.

She angrily left the shop after telling Nami that she was going to go explore the city a little more. Nami still wanted to continue shopping for clothes, and so the two parted ways. Iris looked around for a shop that would be selling training equipment, but didn't find one in the area. So she decided to run her purchase back to the boat and go look around for the naval base she suspected was in the city.

After she had put her new belongings in her room she got back off the boat and started wandering around. She finally came upon the base, but now she would have to figure out how to get in without causing a scene. She decided that the best way to get in would be to look like a soldier and steal his or her clothes, and so she waited around the corner in a shadowy area so that she could catch one by surprise.

Finally a soldier whose clothes looked like they'd fit her walked by and she was able to quickly pull him aside. She wrapped her arm around his neck and held pressure against neck until he passed out from the lack of air. She threw the clothes on over her own and she tucked her hair into the hat as she put it on her head.

She drug the body of the unconscious marine back behind some crates and then walked into the base. Since she had no idea where she was going she would have to find somebody to ask. She started walking through the hall like she belonged there trying not to let her rising anger show. Being in a building so full of the people she hated more than anything was infuriating, but she couldn't let that be known or her cover would be blown.

"You new around here? I haven't seen you before," a man asked her and she nodded her head.

"I just transferred here. I'm supposed to be looking up the records of some people that were recently arrested... Where would I do that?" she asked and the man gave her some directions and pointed down the hall. She was surprised how easy she was able to get in and to where she wanted to go; she had expected to be questioned at least a little about who she was and what she was doing.

She made her way to the room that the man had directed her to and rummaged around until she found arrest records. She flipped through the pages until she found records that were about four years old and started looking for her father's name. She found it after what seemed like forever and saw that indeed he had been taken along with a few others to a prison in the Grand Line. The prison was called Schwarzer Rock.

She was relieved to see that he wasn't taken to Impel Down. She didn't know what kind of prison Schwarzer Rock was or how high the security was, but it had to be better than Impel Down. Now she would have to get back out of the building without being noticed.

She put the papers back where they had been and turned around just in time to see some marines walking into the room. She walked past them without them questioning her and started making her way towards the exit. It looked like things would go her way and that she would be able to get out of the base without any problems.

"So where did you say you were from?" a man asked and she turned her head to see the man that had given her directions to the records looking at her. So much for her getting out without any problems. She knew things were going to good to be true. Her initial instinct was to beat the crap out of the man and run, but if others noticed and came after her she really was in no shape right now to be dealing with multiple people.

"I'm from up north," she responded in a noncommittal tone. His expression was skeptical and she really wanted to get out of this place before she couldn't hold in her pent up rage at the marines. If she didn't get out soon she wouldn't be able to hold back any longer.

"What happened to your arm?" he asked as he eyed her bandaged up arm.

"It's broken," she responded.

"They have you on active duty with a broken arm? That looks painful," he said.

"I'm on light duty," she said trying to remain calm. The man grabbed onto her right arm and said something about how he would get her put on a desk job until her arm was healed, but then noticed the webbing between her fingers and hesitated. He was now the second person on this island to notice the webbing between her fingers since she hadn't bothered to put her gloves back on after telling her crew mates about her heritage.

She quickly pulled her arm away from him and ran off while shouting that she was fine and that he didn't need to worry about her. He yelled for her to stop as she ran off, but she wasn't about to stop. She ran out of the front door and around the corner to where the still passed our marine was. She pulled off the hat and took off the clothes and tossed them on the marine. She could hear marines running around and looking for an impostor that had been in the records room that had a large shark tattoo on her arm. She hadn't even thought about cover her tattoo up; that was quite the mistake with how large and obvious her tattoo was.

She made her way through the alley away from the door she had used and walked out of the alley when she didn't see any marines. Since she had blown her cover here she figured she should probably head back to the Going Merry and keep a low profile until they left this island.

As she walked towards where the boat was docked she saw somebody that she hadn't figured she would ever see again. It was the ridiculous looking beast trainer with the lion from the Buggy Pirates. He had the lion's mane tied up like bike handles, and was singing some stupid song about riding his Richie bicycle. Running into this idiot wasn't a bad thing though; she could release the anger she had built up being in the base on him.

"Hey asshole! What are you doing here?" she shouted at him. He turned to look for whoever was shouting, but he didn't seem to recognize her and he continued riding on his strange looking lion. "It's not polite to ignore people when they're talking to you," she said as she ran up to him and jumped on the back of the lion.

"Who are you? And why are you messing with Mohji the Beast Tamer?! You must be awfully stupid!" he said to her.

"Buggy must be here too if you're here. Great, I can beat him up to," she said with a cocky smirk.

"I asked who are you?! And get off of Richie!" Mohji shouted as he tried to push her off of the lion.

"The name's Iris. I'm with Straw Hat, does that ring a bell?" she asked and Mohji's expression turned fearful. He obviously didn't remembered her, but she knew he would remember Luffy. There was no way that any of Buggy's crew wouldn't remember Luffy. If she remembered right Luffy had beat the crap out of Mohji and and the lion.

The man started swinging at her and the lion started roaring trying to intimidate her, but there was nothing about them that could intimidate her. Even with only one arm she was more than a match for them.

His next plan of action was for the lion to take off running in hopes that she would fall off, but again his plan wasn't working. She kicked her foot onto his back and pressed him down into the lion with enough force that both he and the lion cried out.

"You're even stupider than you look! You shouldn't have turned your back on me. I don't know what you lot are doing here, but rest assured that I will personally see to it that revenge for what you did at Orange Town will be served today," she said with a smirk and Mohji whimpered like the pathetic man he was.

"Where's Buggy at? I'd really love to pay him back for sending a cannonball through my bar," she said as she dug her heel into his back. He mumbled something that she wasn't able to make out and she dug her heel in even further. "I can't hear you... Speak up," she said and he whimpered some more.

"I don't know where he is! All I know is that he's looking for Straw Hat so that he can kill him!" Mohji cried out.

"He won't be able to beat Luffy. Luffy is the man who will become the Pirate King after all," she said as she lifter her foot off of his back. He started to get back up but she dropped her knee onto his back to push him back down and stuck her hand against the back of his neck. He was struggling and the lion was roaring and trying to get her off, but it would take more than that to throw her off.

"Hey! There's the imposter!" Iris heard somebody yelling and looked to see some marines running towards her. She thought she had gotten away from them, but apparently not.

"Shit... I'll finish you off later," she grumbled as she she got off of Mohji and jumped down off the lion. Trying to get their attention off of her she pointed out that Mohji was a member of the Buggy Pirates and ran off. A few of the marines stayed behind to apprehend Mohji while some of them took off running after her.

Since she now had some marines chasing after her she couldn't just head back to the Going Merry. It would be a bad idea to have the navy crawling all over their ship, so her plans of laying low there were ruined. She would have to come up with another plan to evade them. Or perhaps she could fight them. She looked over her shoulder and she could only see two people chasing after her right now and they didn't look that strong.

She shook the idea out of her head. There were a lot of people around and she probably shouldn't cause a scene in the middle of town. She shoved her way through the crowd of people and weaved her way through alley ways to try and lose the marines chasing after her. Just when she thought she had succeeded in losing them four more appeared in front of her.

This time the marine that had pointed her to the records room was in the group. He identified her as the imposter because of the shark tattoo on her arm. She was really regretting not thinking to cover up the tattoo earlier. It was a large visible tattoo, and not many women around here seemed to be tattooed. Of course she would be easily identified because of it.

Not knowing what else to do she decided to try and fight them off. She ran back into the alley a few paces and when they were mostly hidden from the public view she turned around to face them. They were trying to close in around her, but that wasn't going to work. They were probably underestimating her because of the blatant injury to her arm.

When they got close enough to her she jumped up in the air and kicked her feet out into the side splits as they came at her and was able to land both feet on soldiers. She pushed off and they fell back wards, but as she went to land back down on the ground the soldier in front of her grabbed onto her broken arm. She clamped her jaw shut tight to muffle the scream that was trying to come out and used her right arm to punch the man in the face.

He was still holding onto her arm even after taking a punch to the face, and he was holding onto her arm even tighter than before. She needed to get him off her arm before she could no longer mask the pain she was feeling. She used her right leg to plant her foot square in his chest and kick him back away from her, and thankfully he let go of her arm as he was sent flying back.

While she was glad that her arm was now free again she had kicked the man harder than she had meant to and he was sent flying out of the alley way so that people saw. The people on the main street in front of her were now curious what was going on and the crowd gathering at the alley was drawing more marines.

She ran at the marine that had recognized her and swung her hand into his neck with enough force to knock him to the ground and probably give him whiplash. She jumped on top of the barrels next to her and then used the added height to jump onto the roof of a building. She ran along the roof and was able to jump from roof to roof as she made her way through the town.

She waited a few minutes and when she was sure that nobody was following her she quietly got down off a low hanging roof that led to a shadowy and quiet alley. She sneaked out of the alley and saw that she was now facing a large courtyard area. She walked out towards the crowd that was gathered and saw that both Zoro and Sanji were in the crowd, and they were both looking at something with grim expressions.

She followed their gazes to a platform and saw Luffy on the platform, she guessed the platform the Gold Roger was executed on that he had mentioned wanting to see, and Buggy was up there with him. She felt her eyebrows twitch slightly as she looked on in disbelief and annoyance. Luffy had let himself get caught by Buggy? She imagined that he was being his usual carefree self and not bothering to think that anything could possibly happen to him.

"Luffy... You idiot..." she grumbled as she thought about what she could do to get Luffy away from Buggy. She then got a great idea as she remembered Buggy's soft spot; his big red nose.

"Hey clown boy! How'd you get such a big, ugly, round, red honker like that? What a freak!" she shouted as she made her way towards the platform. His attention was drawn to her and he made a loud, whiny angry shout.

"What did you say girl?!" he shouted as his voice squeaked.

"You heard me nose boy," she shouted back at him tauntingly.

"You must be part of Straw Hat's crew! Don't worry, I'll kill you flashily too!" he shouted. "Now prepare to watch your stupid captain die! Any last words Straw Hat?!" he continued as he held a sword over Luffy's neck. Her plan wasn't working as well as she wanted; his attention was still more focused on Luffy than it was her even after insulting him.

"I am the man that will become the Pirate King!" Luffy shouted and there was an audible gasp among the people watching. That wasn't something that was often said, let alone shouted publicly like that. She had been somewhat taken aback when she heard him say it for the first time too. There was also the fact that was the town that the Pirate King Gold Roger had been killed in, and even on that platform. There were probably people here that watched Gold Roger's execution.

Iris noticed that there was now a storm moving in quickly to add to their problems. The winds were picking up and the skies had become a dark and ominous grey. It was a fitting backdrop for the scene unfolding in front of her. Iris started to run towards the platform and various members of the Buggy Pirates tried to get in her way.

"Sorry guys! Zoro! Iris! Nami! Usopp! Sanji! I guess this is where I'll die!" Luffy shouted loudly with a grin on his face. Iris couldn't let that happen though. She wouldn't. If Luffy died now what would happen to them? She didn't think that they'd make it as a crew without him; he seemed to be the glue that held all of these different personalities together.

She tried to fight off the pirates in front of her to reach Luffy, but there seemed to be an endless amount of them. Every time she had dealt with one or two of them and other one or two appeared. As her frustration grew and her patience dwindled her fighting became more desperate. The pirates had noticed her bandaged arm and were now going for it, and that was also causing a problem for her.

Suddenly there was a flash of light and booming thunder, and it was pouring down rain. She looked up and saw the platform that Luffy and Buggy were on collapsing. Had it just been struck by lightning? The platform collapsed with a large boom, and Luffy stood up out of the rubble.

"How lucky! I survived!" Luffy said with a laugh. That was more than mere luck; it was nothing short of a miracle. At the exact perfect timing a lightning bolt struck down from the sky and electrocuted Buggy and burnt the platform, while Luffy escaped unharmed because being a rubber man his body doesn't conduct electricity.

"Iris! Are you alright? You didn't get hurt fighting those pirates did you?" Sanji asked.

"I'm fine," she said as she walked over to the burnt up looking Buggy and kicked her foot into his head as he lay crumpled up on the ground. "That's for ruining my bar," she growled. Zoro mentioned that they should probably get back to the Going Merry, and she agreed hesitantly. She really would rather stay behind and beat up Buggy some more, but didn't seem to be the best plan for the moment. So instead she kicked Buggy once more before running after the boys as they ran from the courtyard.

They started running towards the boat, but a herd of marines were following them. They didn't have time to think about losing them, and with the storm that was brewing around them they didn't have time to fight the marines either. They would have to get to the boat first and then come up with a plan. Since she had gotten the information she wanted from the base she really couldn't be too upset about having to run from them rather than fighting head on.

She looked over her shoulder as she ran and saw that the number of marines chasing them was increasing exponentially. Luffy wanted to stop and fight them off, but that still wasn't in the plan. The storm was getting worse every moment that passed by, and so they needed to get out of there first and foremost.

When she turned her attention back in front of her she saw an angry looking woman glaring at them. She called out Zoro's name and Iris' interest was piqued. "You know her?" she asked him as he drew his swords.

"Met her today... Had no idea she was a marine," he responded. The woman drew her sword as well and swung it at him, though it didn't seem like it took too much effort on his part to block the attack. Zoro instructed them to keep going, but she stopped running. She was curious about the woman, and she had noticed that Zoro's sense of direction wasn't the greatest. If they got too far ahead then he might end up taking a wrong turn back to the boat. Mostly she was curious about the woman who was calling out Zoro's name.

Luffy and Sanji continued on with Luffy dragging Sanji who was now enraged at Zoro for attacking a woman. The woman said something about coming to take one of Zoro's swords and even named the sword. Iris had no idea that swords had names or that there were swords well known enough that somebody who had never seen the sword before would be able to know it.

With just a few swings Zoro had the woman backed against a building and she had dropped her sword. The marines watching seemed shocked that the woman had lost, and so Iris assumed the woman was normally considered a talented swordsman. A normal amount of talent wouldn't hold up against Zoro though.

She could hear the woman and Zoro talking, but between the wind and the rain she couldn't make out what they were saying. When Zoro started walking away from the woman the woman shouted out about how Zoro wasn't taking her seriously because she was a woman. Iris didn't believe that Zoro would take it easy on somebody because of their gender after what he had told her about his childhood friend. His childhood friend had loathed being born a girl and believed she was destined to be weaker than men because of the gender she was born. If he was to have pity on somebody for being a girl she would smack him for his childhood friend.

"Your whole damn existence is what bothers me, not your gender! Not only do you have her face, but now you start spouting off the same words! You're a damn copy!" Zoro shouted and Iris had to stop herself from laughing. He was super flustered and not hiding it at all, and it was kind of cute.

"Come on Zoro, let's get going," Iris said trying to get his attention away from the woman. Zoro glared at the woman for a moment longer before turning towards Iris. She could hear the marines muttering about whether they should go after Zoro and her, but they didn't. After watching the woman that they had been so impressed with get taken down so easily they surely realized that they stood no chance.

The two of them started running towards where the Going Merry should be when a strong gust came up from behind them and pushed them forward. Iris had never experienced a wind strong enough to move her like that; this storm was something else. She looked to Zoro who had also been pushed forward by the gust, but he still looked like he was frustrated.

"She looked like your friend, huh?" Iris asked and he nodded his head. "She wasn't right was she? Would you have cut her down if she had been a man?" she asked him. She didn't figure he'd answer her given his frustration level, but he surprised her and answered.

"No. When I had won she completely lost the will to fight. There's no point in continuing with somebody that has lost their will," he answered. That was a satisfactory answer, though not one she identified with very much. She had typically continued to fight even after her opponent had lost. She had never killed anybody, but she had no problem aiming for permanent damage. Permanent damage meant that the opponent would likely never try to come at her again.

"Look, there's Luffy and Sanji!" she said as the two came into view. There were some marines around them, but they seemed alright. Zoro and her picked up their pace and caught up with them. The four of them ran to the docks to see the Going Merry thrashing about in the waves and the rope holding the boat in place was close to snapping.

"Hurry!" Usopp shouted at them trying his best to hold onto the rope. Before she was able to react Luffy had wrapped his arm around her, Zoro, and Sanji, and had stretched his other arm out so that it was grabbing onto the boat. He flung them all onto the boat and they landed with a crash.

"That hurt you jerk!" she shouted at Luffy and he just grinned at her. He acted like this was all some big game, but he had almost died back there. This had been a much more stressful day that she had thought it would be, and it wasn't over yet. They would still have to navigate their way through this storm.

Nami started shouting out orders on what to do to get the boat steady and they all followed them. Not only could Nami navigate the seas, but she also seemed to know the safest way to operate the boat in different weather conditions. Considering Iris had been more than ready to leave Nami behind a mere 24 hours ago she was now glad to have the girl on board with them.

Once the boat had steadied a bit Nami pointed to a lighthouse on the sea near them and explained that it meant the Grand Line entrance was just ahead of them. Luffy shouted out his excitement and the rest of them, other than Usopp, smiled along. The Grand Line was where all of their goals were. They were ready for the next adventure.

Sanji then drug out a barrel of sake and and proclaimed that entering the Grand Line was cause for celebration.

"To find the All Blue!" he said and put his foot on top of the barrel.

"To become the Pirate King!" Luffy shouted.

"To become the world's greatest swordsman!" Zoro said.

"To rescue my dad!" Iris said.

"To make a map of the world!" Nami said.

"T-T-To become a b-b-brave warrior of the s-s-sea..." Usopp stuttered.

With that they all kicked their heels on the lid of the barrel and it broke off. They were now onto the next leg of their journey together, and with a bit of new information about the location of her dad Iris couldn't be more excited. They were off the the Grand Line!


	13. Chapter 13

After the barrel of sake had been opened Sanjji took it back into the kitchen and she of them followed him in. After having been chased around by marines, dealing with a judgmental cashier, and watching Luffy almost get killed she could use a drink.

"Oh, Iris! Let me get you some!" Sanji said when he realized that she had come into the kitchen.

"No, I can get it myself," she said as she grabbed a cup out of the cupboard and filled it full of sake. The moment before she was going to turn back towards the table she could hear somebody coming towards her and ducked knowing it was Usopp. Usopp tumbled over her rather than landing a punch and almost fell into the barrel of sake. Sanji immediately started yelling at Usopp for trying to cause harm to her especially when she was already injured.

"Leave him be," she said as she set her sake down on the table. "You're lucky you didn't make me spill my drink... Are you ready for me, Usopp?" she asked with a smirk. He grinned at her nervously and then took off running out the door. Sanji went to chase Usopp since he was still angry at the kid for coming at her, but she stopped him and chased after Usopp.

It was still raining cats and dogs, but she didn't pay much attention to that since she was after Usopp to pay him back for his missed attack. Nami and Luffy were up near the front of the boat and she asked them if they had seen where Usopp went and Nami said that he had gone towards the guys' room. Luffy was hanging off the bow of the boat in a manner that made her somewhat nervous, but she decided he'd probably be fine and warned him not to fall into the water.

She went to the guys' room and found that the door was locked. She instructed him to come out, but he didn't. She wasn't surprised that he didn't come out, but that wouldn't stop her. If he wouldn't come out she'd force her way in. She'd give him one more chance to open the door though.

"I'll break the door down, Usopp. Don't tell me you're chickening out on martial arts training already... We haven't even started!" she said loud enough that she knew he could hear her. When she didn't hear anything from the other side of the door she tried to think of the best way to force the door open without harming the actual door; she didn't want the guys' to not have a door at all because of her deal with Usopp.

She finally decided that she would bust off the door handle since they'd be able to find a new door knob easily enough, but she stopped when she heard some movement from the other side of the door. The door opened an Usopp stood in the doorway with a fearful expression and she couldn't help but laugh.

"Come out of the room," she instructed and moved out of the way so he could come out. He walked out and she hooked her foot around the back of his knees and kicked his feet out from under him as his knees buckled. She then jumped over him as he landed and punched her fist down towards his face. He screamed out in fear as he anticipated her fist hitting him, but she slammed it down right next to his head instead. She then flicked his extraordinarily long nose and got off of him.

"He asked me to teach him martial arts," she said when she saw Nami looking at her funny. Nami then returned her attention to the map she was looking at and Iris walked back into the kitchen. She sat down at the table next to where her sake was set and picked up her cup.

"Why did he attack you like that?! That's not how a man should be treating you!" Sanji shouted.

"Have you seriously forgotten our conversation from the other night already? I don't need your concern, Sanji. I've got a deal with him that if he can hit me I'll teach him marital arts. He's doing what I've instructed," she said. He started to protest that it still wasn't right for Usopp to come after her like that, but she stopped him. It was fair because she was the one who had made the condition.

"Stop being so whiny, you stupid cook," Zoro said as he sat next to her at the table with some sake. Before Sanji was able to respond to Zoro, Nami and Luffy walked in. Usopp came in shortly after them as well. Nami put the map she had of the Grand Line from Buggy on the table with a perplexed look on her face.

"The entrance to the Grand Line is a mountain!" Nami said and they all looked at the map. It didn't really make sense to Iris, or any of the others judging by the looks on their faces, that the entrance to the Grand Line would be a mountain called the Red Line.

"How are we supposed to get our boat over a mountain? Is there another way into the Grand Line?" Iris asked.

"No, we can't go in any other way. This just doesn't make sense... But it's what the map shows!" Nami said.

"Isn't that the map from Buggy? It might not be very accurate," Zoro said and Iris nodded in agreement. Anything that came from Buggy had to be somewhat sketchy. Just thinking of Buggy made her angry again; she should have beat him up more back in Loguetown when she had had the chance.

They continued to talk about how it didn't make sense that they would be able to sail their boat up the mountain. Luffy thought it sounded like a great adventure to sail up some magic mountain, though they all mostly ignored his comments as they tried to figure it out.

"Let's just go in another way..." Zoro grumbled.

"We can't! It's much cooler to go in the real entrance!" Luffy shouted enthusiastically as Nami punched him while shouting about that not being the reason. When Usopp then pointed out that the storm had stopped and that it was super calm and nice outside they all turned their attention towards the windows. Nami seemed confused about how they had gotten out of the storm, and they all walked outside.

"You all need to grab the oars and paddle us back to the storm!" Nami shouted.

"Why?! It's so nice here! I don't want to go back!" Usopp whined.

"We're in the Calm Belt! We need to leave now!" Nami shouted. The more upset that Nami got the more Usopp seemed to want to not follow along. Luffy didn't seem very inclined to do as Nami was asking either. The only one showing any enthusiasm for Nami's instructions was Sanji.

"Quit whining Usopp. What is a Calm Belt? Why do we need to hurry out of it?" Iris asked.

"The Grand Line is surrounded by two seas called the Calm Belts. There is no wind or current in them," Nami explained.

"So we can just sail through here to get to the Grand Line?" Zoro asked.

"NO! If it was that easy everybody would be able to sail in and out of the Grand Line as they pleased!" Nami screamed at him.

Then the boat suddenly started shaking violently as it lifted out of the sea. Iris grabbed onto the railing in front of her to steady herself as the boat rocked about and when it steadied her eyes widened with what she saw. There were giant monsters all around them unlike anything she had ever seen or even imagined.

"What are these things?" she asked in shock.

"The Calm Belt is a den for Sea Kings..." Nami said in a quivering voice as she held onto the mast as tightly as she possibly could. Iris had heard of Sea Kings before, but they exceeded her expectations. They were terrifying and awe inducing. These creatures deserved an immense amount of respect.

The boys had already run to get the oars and come back as she stood staring at the enormous Sea Kings. She felt a little bad for not running to get oars with the enthusiasm that the boys had, but she was having a hard time drawing her attention away from the Sea Kings. She had heard stories about them from her father on numerous occasions, but she had never imagined that there were creatures like this in the sea. She still had a lot to learn about the ocean and its inhabitants.

She went to go grab an oar as well so that if they were set down back into the sea that she would be able to help row, but before she could the boat was in motion again. She reached out and grabbed onto the nearest piece of the boat she could and held onto it as tightly as she could with her right arm. She watched in horror as Usopp started falling overboard as the Going Merry flew across the Calm Belt, but thankfully Luffy was able to stretch out his arm and grab onto Usopp and pull him back.

The boat landed back in the East Blue where they had been before entering the Calm Belt. Iris had never thought that she'd be thankful to be stormy, rough waters, but she was. The Sea Kings didn't seem to have followed them back to the East Blue. That was a good thing. She would be okay with never running into creatures like that again, though she had a feeling that she would run into them and even more terrifying things in the Grand Line.

Iris then turned her attention to the gigantic mountain that their boat was sailing towards once more and wondered what they would do. It seemed impossible for the boat to sail up it. Even if by some strange reason the water flowed up the mountain and defied gravity it seemed like an even further stretch to think that it would have a strong enough current to pull a large boat like the Going Merry up it.

"I've got it!" Nami shouted. Iris looked to Nami and listened as she tried to explain why it should work that they would be able to travel up the mountain. It didn't necessarily make sense to Iris, but Nami seemed fairly confident now that a boat could make it up the stream going up the mountain.

"So it really is a magic mountain!" Luffy said cheerfully. Iris laughed a little at her captain. She didn't blame him for not understanding, she didn't either, but him thinking that it was magic because he didn't understand was quite funny. The expression on his face as he thought about the magic mountain made him look like a little kid; it was kind of cute. She wished a little bit that she could view life as simply as he did.

"If we don't do this exactly right we'll crash into the mountain and fall into the sea..." Nami said as she thought out loud looking at the map. Iris was going to go look at the map with Nami to see if she could understand better what Nami had been trying to explain a moment earlier, but her attention was drawn back to Luffy as he started shouting about seeing the mountain.

She looked in front of them and saw the largest mountain she could imagine in front of them. She couldn't see the top of the mountain through the clouds. This meant that the would quickly have to figure this out or crash into the mountain. If they crashed there was no way she could save all of them even if both of her arms were functioning; she could maybe save two of them in her current condition with the seas being as stormy as they were. Luffy would obviously be her priority since he couldn't swim.

She hoped that it wouldn't come down to that though since she knew that Zoro would be the other person she would have to make sure was safe. He probably could swim better than Nami and Usopp because of how strong he was, but she wouldn't be able to get her mind off of his safety in the event that their boat crashed. She tried to shake the thought from her head and told herself to believe that everything that would work out.

The entrance to the stream that would hopefully carry them up the mountain then became visible. The entrance was narrow, but it did seem to have a fairly strong current flowing up the mountain. Nami shouted out for somebody to go steady the rudder so that they wouldn't be taken off course, and both Usopp and Sanji ran to deal with it.

The boat started veering off course and the rudder needed to be turned to the right a bit. Usopp and Sanji tried to force the boat to turn, and the rudder broke. If the boat wasn't able to turn it would crash and people would likely drown. The only thing that Iris could think to do was to jump in the water and try and turn the rudder from the bottom of the boat.

There was no time to decide about whether it was a good idea or not, and so she ran to the side of the boat and dove into the water as one of her crew mates called out her name in what was probably concern or confusion. The waters were extremely rough, but she was able to swim up to the rudder and rammed her shoulder into the rudder to turn it. She hoped she had managed to turn it enough to get them back on course and then hung on as tightly as she could.

She could feel the boat rushing ahead which meant that she had gotten it back on course. A few moments later the boat jumped out of the water and she had a clear view of the stream that should take them down and all she could think about the impact back into the water and how painful it would probably be. A few stray curse words slipped out of her mouth as she tried to climb up the rudder so that she wouldn't be in the water when the boat landed in the water.

She felt something wrap around her and before she could look to see what was touching her she was being pulled off the rudder and back onto the boat. She didn't even mind that she landed with a crash from Luffy pulling her on board. She was just glad to be off the rudder and back on the deck.

"Are you alright, Iris?" Zoro asked her and she nodded her head as she tried to wring out her clothes. She should have changed into the clothes she had just bought; they would be doing better in this situation than the clothes she was wearing.

She made her way to the front of the boat where the others were and was greeted by an ecstatic Luffy. His journey towards becoming the Pirate King was now one step closer to being fulfilled. They were all one step closer to their goals. She was now in the sea that her father should be imprisoned in. Now she would have to find that prison and rescue him assuming he hadn't been transferred to another prison at some point in the past four years.

"Full speed ahead!" Luffy shouted. His shout was then followed by a strange noise that Nami figured was just the wind. Iris didn't think that was the wind though. It sounded like an animal to her. Maybe some sort of whale? Though it didn't sound like any whale she had ever encountered while swimming in the sea that was the closest thing she could think to compare it to.

"There's a mountain up there!" Usopp shouted in a panic. There shouldn't be a mountain at the base of the stream according to the map, but that map had come from Buggy. Iris really wouldn't be surprised if it was incorrect.

Iris looked at the mountain they were sailing towards and it didn't look like any mountain she had ever seen before. As she looked closer she realized it was in fact a whale. That meant she was correct about the sounds they were hearing. How was it possible for a whale to be so big though? Were there other animals that would be giant and unlike any she had ever seen before in the Grand Line?

At this rate they were going to crash straight into the whale. Nami started freaking out about their inevitable crash, and Zoro, Sanji and Usopp went to try and adjust the rudder. She was about to jump back into the sea to try and adjust the rudder from below again, but Luffy stopped her and said he had an idea.

"Luffy... I'm not sure what your idea is, but I can make the boat turn!" she shouted at him as he disappeared to a lower level. She was about to jump into the sea anyway since they didn't have much time, but before she did the cannon on the front of the ship went off. She felt her jaw drop when she realized what Luffy had just done. They didn't need that giant whale to be angry at them.

The boat slowed down and the whale didn't seem to notice. Luffy started yelling as he emerged back to the main deck about his special seat when he noticed that the head of the bow had broken off and had fallen into the boat during his cannon fire against the whale.

"You should have let me adjust the rudder..." Iris grumbled as she ran to grab an oar so they could get away from the whale before it noticed them. Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp were rowing too and arguing about whether the whale was too big to feel the cannon fire or if it was just really slow because of its size. "Would you guys concentrate on rowing?! Luffy! Nami! You should be helping!" she shouted angrily as she tried to row with just one working arm.

The whale cried out again and it was deafening with how close they were to it. It took everything she had to keep rowing rather than covering her ears. She could hear Luffy saying something, and just as she was about to yell at him to come help row she realized that he was yelling at the whale.

"How dare you destroy my special seat!" he screamed at the whale. She looked at him just in time to see him stretch out his arm and punch the whale in the eye. She was absolutely dumbfounded that he would do something so incredibly stupid. She had thought him trying to stop the boat with firing a cannon ball at the whale was beyond stupid, but this was even worse by far.

The whale's eye then looked at them and everybody, other than Luffy, went pale. This whale could flatten them without exerting hardly any effort if it so chose, and why wouldn't it choose to do so? Luffy had to be one of the stupidest individuals alive to want to fight something as gigantic as this whale.

Luffy continued shouting about wanting to fight the whale and they all rushed to him to stop him. Before she had gotten to him the boat started rocking and she realized that they were being swallowed by the whale. She fell down to her knees as the boat was jerked forward and tried to protect her left arm and shoulder from being further injured.

As she was focused on not letting her arm get hurt she failed to notice Luffy fall off of the boat. Somebody called out to Luffy as he fell, and when she realized what had just happened she immediately tried to jump out into the water to save him from drowning but was stopped by Sanji grabbing onto her wrist.

"What are you doing?! He can't swim!" she screamed.

"We can't all get separated right now!" he said.

"So we're going to let Luffy get left by himself in the sea to drown?! Let go of me!" she screamed, but now it was probably too late. The whale had closed its mouth and she didn't know if Luffy was inside the whale or if he was outside of it. She glared at Sanji and pulled her wrist away from him. "If he dies it's your fault," she growled at him.

"He's not in here any more, I saw him get out," Sanji said in a pathetic tone that ticked her off further

"I don't care. It's on you if anything happens to him. I won't forgive you," she snapped.

"You guys have to come look at this..." she heard Usopp say from the front of the boat. She looked over to where he was standing with Zoro and Nami and saw that it was light inside the whale, and that there was an island. There was a bright blue sky surrounding them and it looked like a perfectly nice sunny day. There was something disconcerting about the whole situation.

"How is this possible?" she asked as she stood next to Zoro and they all shrugged their shoulders.

"Are we dreaming? I could have sworn we were swallowed by a whale..." Zoro said.

"We were... " she said when suddenly a giant squid popped up out of the water. Nami and Usopp ran towards the back of the boat screaming while she, alongside Zoro and Sanji, reacted by getting ready to take it on. Any of the three of them could probably deal with it on their own, but before they could do anything some harpoons were shot through the squid and it was pulled back into the water and towards the house on the small island.

"That must mean there's a person here..." Zoro observed out loud.

"Let's hope it's a person," Sanji said.

"Let's just hope whatever it is will help us get out of here," Iris said as she looked at the island. Somebody started walking out of the house and it appeared to be an old man. He had a strange flower like thing on her head on and Sanji's first response was to shout that it was a flower coming out of the house.

"You're an idiot," she grumbled as she glared at him. He gave her a pitiful look as he tried to apologize and ask her not to be mad, but she knew he wasn't actually sorry for stopping her from jumping out after Luffy. He just didn't want her to be mad at him. She felt her blood boil just looking at him.

The old man pulled the squid onto the island by the ropes attached to the harpoons while looking at them. He didn't say anything as he finished pulling up the squid and then sat down in a reclining lawn chair with a newspaper.

"Hey old man! Where are we?" she shouted out to him.

"H-H-He's probably strong Iris! He took out that giant squid all by himself... And he looks angry!" Usopp said to her as he grabbed onto her arm. She shook him off her arm and looked at the old man waiting for a response. She wasn't in the mood to be dealing with Usopp's cowardice right then.

"Say something! You shouldn't ignore a lady when she speaks to you!" Sanji shouted as the old man turned his attention to the newspaper he was holding. She smacked Sanji upside his head.

"How many times do I have to tell you I can defend myself?! I don't need you telling off that old man for me," she growled at him. He looked at her with sad puppy-dog eyes and she had to turn her back to him in order to not get even more angry at him. "Why don't you go protect Nami? She'd probably appreciate it," she growled.

"You can protect me!" Nami shouted out in a scared tone and Sanji immediately went to her side. Having Nami around would be a good thing for Sanji; she was much more dainty and lady like than Iris was and seemed to enjoy being pampered by him and she definitely needed protecting. Now if only he would focus all of his attention on Nami rather than splitting it between the two of them.

Usopp then started shouting something about how the old man had better not try and start a fight with them because they had cannons while his legs quivered in fear. If the old man ended up being any kind of a threat she didn't imagine they'd need cannons. Between herself, Zoro, and Sanji they should be more than capable of dealing with one old man.

"You had better not do that or somebody might end up dead," the old man said in a foreboding tone.

"And who might that be?" Zoro asked.

"Probably me," the old man answered and Iris laughed.

"Hey old man, where are we?" Zoro shouted.

"Isn't it common courtesy to introduce yourself first?" the old man asked, but before Zoro was able to respond the old man answered Zoro's question. "I'm Crocus, and I'm the lighthouse keeper of the Twin Capes. I'm 71-years-old, a Gemini, and an AB blood type," he said. Zoro seemed angry at the old man, but she just laughed. What a strange way to introduce himself.

"Well Crocus, I'm Iris. He's Zoro, that's Sanji, and then there's Usopp and Nami. Where are we?" she asked.

"Well where do you think?! This ain't the stomach of a mouse," he answered.

"So we really are in the stomach of the whale?" she asked and he nodded and pointed to an exit. She looked around and noticed that the sky around the island and the water was painted on. She was really curious about how this came to be, but there wasn't time. If this was indeed the stomach of a whale then they were floating on stomach acid and their boat could start dissolving and they needed to get out of there.

The stomach acid suddenly became rough and everything started rocking back and forth including the island that Crocus was on which turned out to have an iron bottom. Usopp and Nami continued to panic while Sanji went on about protecting her from whatever was going on.

"Let's get out of here..." Iris said as she went to grab an oar to start rowing towards the exit. It didn't matter what was going on outside with the whale because it didn't change the fact that they needed to get out and figure out what happened to Luffy. If he was sitting at the bottom of the sea she would never be able to forgive Sanji for stopping her.

"What's going on?! I don't want to die!" Usopp started crying.

"Then get your ass over here and help me row! Whining won't get us out!" she yelled back at him, but he was so worked up that he wasn't listening to her. She started to yell for somebody to grab the oar on the other side of the boat, but noticed that they all seemed to be paying attention to Crocus. He was saying something about the whale bashing his head against the Red Line.

If the whale was bashing his head against the Red Line did that mean that they wouldn't be able to use the exit safely? If there was a current built up from the whale bashing his head, and with as big as he was she figured that there had to be a current built up with his movements, would the boat be smashed into the Red Line by a current the moment they used the exit? Though if they stayed here much longer the boat would dissolve in the stomach acid. It would be best to take their chances and use the exit.

"Ah, I've got it!" Nami said as Iris walked up towards the rest of her crew mates to make them come help her row towards the exit. Nami decided that Crocus was harming the whale from the inside, but Iris didn't care. Normally she would care a bit more about the whale as she tended to care about marine life having roots in the sea herself, but getting outside of this stomach took precedence over anything else right now.

"Can we get out of here now?! It doesn't matter what's happening to the whale if we're all digested," she snapped.

"Yeah... You're right. It's getting more and more unsteady in here... It's going to be difficult to reach the exit," Zoro said and started walking towards the oars. Sanji and Usopp started making their way towards the oars too and the four of them starting trying to row the boat towards the exit. She wasn't sure why Nami wasn't helping, but having Nami help probably wouldn't make much of a difference anyway.

The old man then dove into the stomach acid. Usopp became a little distracted by Crocus jumping and she yelled at him to focus. She didn't like having to try and corral all of these people. She wasn't the captain and it wasn't her job. Though Luffy had to be reined in too. They would certainly need to learn to be more efficient if they were going to make it in the Grand Line.

As they started making their way towards the exit some people came flying through a small door that was placed in the larger exit doors and up on a platform that had a ladder that led down to the stomach acid sea. The acid stopped rocking so violently and she saw that one of the three people flying through the smaller door was Luffy. She felt a wave of relief wash over her to see that he was okay.

"You guys are alright! Can you help me?" Luffy shouted as he fell into the acid alongside two other people. She dove into the stomach acid without hesitation while making sure not to breathe in any of the acid; it felt weird to be swimming in something that she couldn't freely breathe in.

She grabbed onto his sinking body and tossed his body over her shoulder so she could climb up the rope that was lowered for her. The other two people climbed up the rope after her and climbed into the ship.

"I don't remember anybody welcoming you onto the ship," she said as she looked at the people. The girl had bright sky blue hair and was stikingly beautiful. Iris actually felt a slight twinge of envy pop into her mind. This girl was very feminine looking, and Sanji fawning all over the new girl wasn't helping her ignore how unfeminine and plain she felt. Iris knew her insecurities were petty and unimportant, but that didn't stop them from being there. There was also a blonde guy with her that looked like he had some screws loose.

She glanced to Zoro to see his reaction to the beautiful girl, but if he was interested in her at all it didn't show. That made her feel a little better. She didn't think that he put much stock into beauty, but as Nami had pointed out in Loguetown he was still a guy. Guys noticed beautiful women. He seemed suspicious of the two people rather than interested. She was okay with that.

She tried to wring out her clothes she noticed that she now stunk like stomach acid. Her hair also smelled of acid, but for now she'd have to settle for just changing her clothes. She couldn't imagine taking time to take a bath until they had gotten out of this situation. She excused herself from the group momentarily as they tried to interrogate the two people.

She walked back to her and Nami's room and tossed her clothes off and tossed them in a pile on the ground. She managed to get some new clothes on, though it took much longer than it should have with only one arm. She looked in the mirror and was again surprised how much she liked the clothes she had bought in Loguetown. She had put on the black running leggings, and put on a light blue cropped tank top on. She also noticed while looking at her reflection that the bandages on her arm were starting to come undone. She'd have to have some help rewrapping it later.

She then heard a large boom as she was trying to readjust her ponytail into a bun on top of her head, and she ran back out to the main deck. The two strangers had large bazookas on their shoulders and had obviously shot off. She then watched as Luffy punched the two people in the back of the head to knock them out.

"What the hell just happened?" Iris asked.

"These idiots just tried to shoot off their bazookas to kill the whale and shot the old man instead," Zoro responded.

"You changed your clothes and look so beautiful!" Sanji shouted as he stared at her. She was a little embarrassed to have him staring at her in these tighter fitting and more revealing clothes, but she was actually okay with his response to her. She still didn't necessarily like receiving attention from him, but it made her insecurities about her femininity fade away just a little bit.

Zoro looked at her out of the corner of his eyes when Sanji started commenting on her appearance and her heart skipped a beat or two. His gaze only stayed on her a few moments, but it gave her hope that perhaps he was interested in her appearance even if he only noticed the difference when Sanji pointed it out. She leaned against the boat as everybody watched the unconscious whale poachers.

The old man then jumped into the stomach acid and swam to the island. He motioned for them to come over and the boys rowed the boat over to the island while her and Nami tied up the whale poachers on their boat.

Once the anchor was put down so the boat wouldn't float away from the island they got out of the boat, though Iris still thought they should be getting their boat out of the stomach acid rather than chit chatting so casually.

Crocus then explained that the whale belonged to a species called Island Whales. They originate from the West Blue, and this particular one was named Laboon. The two strangers were from a neighboring town and were trying to kill Laboon to feed their town. He then explained that the reason that Laboon keeps bashing his head into the Red Line and bellowing was because he was calling out to his "pod."

Laboon's pod was a group of pirates that had come through the Red Line over 50 years ago. The pirates and Crocus had become friendly with each other since the pirates stayed to fix their boat for a few months, but they were afraid that the Grand Line would be too tough for Laboon since he was only a baby at the time. Crocus agreed to watch the whale why they sailed, but they never came back.

Laboon's story was a sad one. Iris couldn't imagine how much sadness the creature must be feeling, and the loyalty to his friends that kept him here waiting was impressive to say the least. They must have died while sailing if it had been over 50 years since they left him behind. This poor whale would probably spend the rest of his life waiting for the pirates to come back.

"You all should probably get out of here before your boat disintegrates. I'll show you the way out," Crocus said. Iris was relieved to be getting out of the whale's stomach. She really didn't know how the others didn't see the urgency in the situation. If the stomach acid damaged the boat it would be irreversible damage.

They all climbed back into their boat and took the whale poachers with them and followed Crocus through the large exit door and found themselves in a tunnel alongside Crocus' island that moved alongside them.

"How did you get tunnels in a living animal like this?" Iris asked him.

"I'm a doctor. I couldn't treat him very well from the outside, so I did what I had to to treat him," Crocus answered. That didn't really answer her question though. She wasn't so much interested in why he was able to do so, but how. It was a good thing for the whale that Crocus was a doctor it appeared, but that still didn't explain how he was able to build such large tunnels in a living animal.

"So do you live here then? You should be the doctor on our crew!" Luffy said.

"Yes I live here so I can treat Laboon. I can't go with you. I'm too old to go along with you youngsters," Crocus responded as he climbed off of his island and up a ladder to turn the wheel that opened the gate. When the gate opened and their boat sailed out onto the sea Iris could hardly contain her relief. The sun hitting her skin and the smell of the salty air let her relax a bit.

"What should we do with these two?" Luffy asked Crocus, and Crocus responded by telling them to throw them into the sea wherever. Sanji started protesting about throwing a lady overboard, so she stepped in to do it. If she was doing it he wouldn't stop her like he would one of the boys.

She grabbed onto the woman's jacket and pulled her over to the edge of the boat and then pushed her overboard while somebody else threw the guy overboard. Iris could hear the two talking as they treaded the water and she could hear them referring to each other as Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9. Those had to be code names of some sort, but they were stupid code names in Iris' opinion. If you're trying to hide your identity why not make up a fake name that wouldn't sound fake? If it was a normal enough name nobody would even realize that they were trying to hide their identities and try and figure out who they really were.

Luffy tried to talk to the people and ask who they were, but after insulting him for a bit they swam off without answering who they were. Iris didn't really care one way or the other who they were though, so she wasn't disappointed when they swam off.

They then followed Crocus back to where his lighthouse was. The others got down onto the land, and Iris jumped down after they had all exited. She stood at the edge of the land and looked down into the water. She couldn't wait to jump into this water and swim in the Grand Line. She had never swam anywhere but the East Blue since that was the only place she had ever been. There was something exciting about getting to breathe in the water of the Grand Line.

She was tempted to jump in right now, but that would probably appear strange to Crocus since he didn't know her. She kept seeing the look of disgust on the stupid cashier's face back in Loguetown and she was still overly conscious of her half fishman heritage. She knew that it was printed in the newspaper that she was a fishman, but if people hadn't read the paper that day they wouldn't know.

She also didn't want to reveal her being a fishman because she didn't want to put Crocus in a place that would make her dislike him. He was a strange old man, but he didn't seem like a bad person. If he was willing to take care of and treat a whale for as long as he had been he couldn't be a bad person. But that didn't mean he wouldn't react negatively to her being a fishman.

"You know, you can jump if you like. Laboon won't hurt you for swimming around near him," Crocus said. She jumped slightly at his comment since she hadn't realized he was standing behind her, but she didn't jump in. She wasn't afraid of the whale harming her; if he wanted to harm them he would have done so when they were in the boat and he could have gotten them all at once.

"You're not a regular human, are you?" he asked.

"... No," she responded after a long pause.

"Don't worry, I've seen all kinds in my days in the Grand Line. You'll come across all sorts of different races and creatures you've never seen before," he said. She didn't know how to respond to his words, so she smiled at him and then jumped into the water.

She hit the surface of the water and dove through and took a deep breath of the salty water. It didn't feel any different from breathing in the East Blue, but at the same time it was completely different. The water was clear and cool, and it was exciting. There was an uncertainty in the water that she had never experienced. There were creatures living in this water that she had never dreamed of. There were also other fishmen and merfolk that lived in this great sea. She could hardly contain her excitement as she swam down through the water.

She swam along the length of the whale to see how far down his body went and she was amazed by how amazingly large it was. What a fantastic creature he was! As she swam down she realized that the pressure was building differently than it did in the East Blue. According to her dad she would be able to handle pressure and should even be able to swim down to Fishman Island even being 10,000 meters below the surface because of the fishman blood running through her veins, but that didn't mean she didn't notice the pressure changes.

After exploring the waters for awhile she decided the swim back towards the surface. As she swam she tried to move her left arm and to her surprise it seemed to be moving better than it had a few hours earlier. It still hurt like crazy, but she was glad to see some improvement.

While she was distracted with moving her arm around something must have been going on above the surface of the water because the whale started to thrash around. She swam as quickly as she could away from the whale and back to the surface to see Luffy fighting with the whale. What in the world was that boy thinking?

She swam to the land and climbed out of the water just in time to see the whale fling Luffy back onto the land and against the lighthouse. She heard Luffy going on about how he was now Laboon's rival and that they would come back after conquering the Grand Line to fight again. She had no idea what had caused this scene, but she hoped there was some sort of explanation.

"What's going on with Luffy?" she asked Zoro as she walked up next to him.

"He broke off the mast of our ship and beat up the whale with it," Zoro said.

"He broke the mast?!" she asked in shock.

"Yep. Didn't even think twice before doing it," he said.

"Why was he beating up the whale?" she asked.

"Something about being the whale's new rival... He's probably trying to get the whale over the pirates that left him behind,"

"Ugh..." she grumbled. "But those pirates... They're probably dead... I mean, pirates die all the time in the Grand Line. With this amount of time having gone by he has to know they aren't coming back," she responded.

"The old man says they ran away with their tails between their legs. They were cowards and didn't even bother to come back for the whale when they ran away," Zoro said.

If that was the case that was absolutely awful. How could they run away and leave the poor baby whale by himself? Laboon considered them his family. She understood that the Grand Line could be a terrifying place, or at least she had heard so, but that was no excuse for leaving somebody behind. People like that deserved to die.

She then watched as Luffy painted a sad version of the symbol on the jolly roger on the whales head and placed some giant sized bandages on the whales head where he had shoved the mast into its head. The whale actually looked happy, and Iris started to realize what a good thing Luffy had done for this whale. His method may have been over the top and not well thought out, but if it helped the whale move on even a little bit it was probably worth it all. Luffy seemed to be able to make friends out of anybody he met, and others were drawn to him. She knew she was; there was something magnetic about him that people wanted to stick around for.

The next step of their journey was to sail out into the Grand Line beyond the entrance point. But to do that they would have to fix the mast. That wouldn't be an easy task. Hopefully they would be able to make do. Usopp made his way back to the ship and asked for help with the mast, and so she joined him. She held the mast in place as well as she could with only one arm while Usopp tried to fasten it into place.

It didn't take as long as she had thought it might take to fix it, and when they were done she sat down against the side of the boat at closed her eyes. Luffy was still back on land and so was Nami, and Sanji was in the kitchen. Usopp had made his way somewhere else, and she wasn't sure where Zoro was. It was quiet on the boat for once; she would take this opportunity to enjoy the quiet.

She heard a thump to the right of her and opened her eyes to see Zoro sitting next to her now with his eyes closed. She was happy that he had chosen to sit next to her rather than somewhere else on the boat as he could have easily done.

"Man, I'm beat. What a day," Zoro said with a yawn.

"You're telling me... But we're finally here. We're in the Grand Line," she said.

"Yeah. It'll be quite the adventure following Luffy across the Grand Line," he said with a light laugh. That was definitely true; Luffy made it so that things were never boring. He had caused quite the commotion back in the East Blue in a mere matter of weeks. There was no telling what he would do in the Grand Line as he continued to grow stronger.

Zoro asked her if she had gotten any more information on her dad's whereabouts and she told him about getting into the naval base in Loguetown and getting chased around the town by the marines right up until Luffy was almost killed by Buggy on the execution platform.

They chatted for a bit before Zoro fell asleep. Iris was once again amazed at how much this man slept. It must be nice to be able to sleep so easily. Her brain seemed to want to run on and on more often than not when she wanted to sleep.

She sat there next to him continuing to enjoy the silence when he leaned over onto her as he slept as a wave rocked the boat. She was happy to have him leaning on her even if it was only because he fell over as he slept. The weight of his muscular body was heavy and his body was warm. She was glad that nobody else was around to see this because she knew she was grinning like an idiot. It was ridiculous to be so happy over such a small thing, but it made her happy all the same.

Then Sanji came out of the kitchen carrying some food and she had to force the smile off of her face. She closed her eyes and hoped that he would assume that she was also asleep and would leave them alone, but she was wrong.

"Hey, you stupid moss head! Who said you could lean on Iris like that?!" Sanji yelled.

"Leave me alone, Sanji Why don't you go fawn over Nami?" she asked him as she opened her eyes.

"Why does he get to sleep on you like that? Is he bothering you? I'll get him off you," Sanji said sounding annoyed.

"He fell asleep and then fell over onto me. It's not a big deal," she replied in an annoyed tone.

"I can get him off of you if he's annoying you," Sanji offered.

"He's not annoying me," she said.

"You seem to get along better well with him... What's there about that stupid moss head that's better than me?" he asked.

"Well, for one, he doesn't annoy me by trying to do everything for me. He's also never stopped me from trying to save Luffy," she snapped. Sanji looked hurt at her comment, but it was his own fault. It would take awhile before she would be able to get over him stopping her. As she sat glaring at Sanji he was glaring at Zoro. He went to kick Zoro and she thought she was going to lose it.

"Don't wake him up you jerk! Why don't you go find Nami?" she snapped. His eyes lit up when he thought about Nami and she hoped that he would be distracted enough to leave now. He tried to give her some food, but she turned him down saying that she'd eat whatever was left when he got back on the ship. He didn't seem pleased with her response, but he did leave and started calling out Nami's name as he ran towards where she was.

Usopp then popped his head out of the guys' room and asked about the food he was smelling. She told him that Sanji had just carried it ashore and that he'd have to go find them if he wanted to eat. Usopp started walking towards the edge of the boat to climb down, but noticed her sitting with Zoro and stopped.

"Aren't you going to go eat?" he asked and she shook her head no. He then got a mischievous grin on his face and started walking towards her. She knew exactly what he was thinking and she couldn't blame him. Now would be the perfect time for him to try and hit her since she didn't want to wake up Zoro. If he had heard any of her conversation with Sanji then he probably had figured out that she didn't want to wake up Zoro.

He walked up next to her and sat on the opposite side from Zoro while still grinning. She could think of may ways to get him away from her, but she decided now would be a good enough time to give in and let him hit her. He had been trying for a few days now, and she was tired of having to wait for all of his little attacks.

"Touch my arm and you're dead meat," she said as she saw him eyeing her arm. He was sitting on her left side and her left arm was definitely a weak spot for her right now. She didn't feel liking having that weak spot taken advantage of right now, and especially not by Usopp.

She watched from the corner of her eye as he slowly raised up his hand and then quickly punched his hand to her face. He didn't use much force; even if he was weak there was no way he was that weak.

"Alright, you got me. I'll teach you martial arts. We'll start tomorrow with one rule. You have to do whatever I tell you to do and you can't question it," she said.

"That doesn't sound fair..." he whined.

"Don't care. I'm the one teaching you, so it's my way or the highway. Take it or leave it," she said.

"Fine... Though I almost feel like I was cheating to get you so easily..." he said.

"You assessed the situation you saw and acted on it. You had to have know that you'd have to find a situation where I wouldn't react or would completely have my guard down, so it's fine," she said.

He then asked her why she didn't react and she explained that she had no reason to move and wake up Zoro, and then told him that he should probably go get some food before Luffy ate it all. He looked at her questioningly as if not wanting to wake up Zoro was a good enough answer, but she didn't feel like getting into any more details with him. She told him to go eat and he did as she asked.

After Usopp had gotten off the ship she closed her eyes again. After what seemed like no time at all the others were getting back on the ship along with Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9. She glared at them and they glared right back at her.

"What are these two idiots doing here?" she snapped.

"We're taking them to their town," Luffy said. Iris rolled her eyes and tried to wake Zoro up so that she could stand up, but he didn't wake up. She pushed him to the side a bit so that he hopefully wouldn't fall back down and hit the deck and then stood up.

"I don't agree with letting these people we don't know on board," she said and Luffy nodded, but didn't care. He was going to do what he wanted to do and apparently he wanted to take these people back to wherever they came from. She threatened them that she would be watching their every movement on this ship, and made it clear that she would not hesitate to harm them should they try anything unnecessary.

They then said their goodbyes to Crocus and to Laboon and set sail. Iris noticed that Nami was wearing a new band on he wrist with a glass orb on it, and Nami explained the log pose to her. They were lucky that Crocus had been willing to part with his.

Sanji tried to give her some food again, though not the food he had taken down to Nami and Luffy earlier, and she turned him down again. She was still stewing over him holding back earlier and she wasn't going to act like she wasn't. Things had worked out well enough this time, but what if they hadn't? If he ever tried to stop her from jumping into action ever again she'd kill him. Or at least cause him bodily harm.

He seemed to realize that she was still angry with him, but at least he was smart enough to walk away. He had to have known there was nothing he could say to her that would justify his actions. She'd get over it eventually, but right now he was the last person she wanted to be around. She'd rather be around the two whale poachers than him.

So with that they set sail and headed for an island called Whiskey Peak. She was curious about what kind of town it would be and what type of adventure was awaiting them there. Perhaps she'd be able to find out some information about Schwarzer Rock where her dad had been taken to, or even find out some information about her dad's condition. She desperately hoped it wouldn't take too long to find out some more information about his whereabouts and his well being.


	14. Chapter 14

As they set sail for Whiskey Peak Nami approached her. She had been barking out orders ship since they had left Crocus and Laboon, and had finally stopped shouting after deciding that they were on the right track to be headed towards Whiskey Peak. Iris could tell by the look on Nami's face that she was wanting to talk about something or another.

"Poor Sanji seems upset... Do you know why, Iris?" Nami asked. The tone in Nami's voice gave away what she was thinking. Nami already knew that Iris was the one that had upset Sanji. When Iris didn't answer Nami started shoving her towards their bedroom. Iris started to protest, but Nami informed her that they needed to re-wrap her arm since the bandages were starting to fall off.

Once they were in the bedroom Nami shut the door behind them and Iris sat on her bed. Nami grabbed a roll of bandages as Iris started to pull her current bandages off. The bite mark from Arlong was starting to heal and she wondered if it would scar. That would actually be a kind of cool scar to have. Scars told a story, like tattoos did, and having a large bit mark permanently on her shoulder would look pretty bad ass she thought.

"What did you do to upset him so badly? Was it because you were letting Zoro sleep on you?" Nami asked. Iris didn't want to talk about it with Nami, but she knew that Nami wouldn't let her get away if she didn't talk about it. She sighed, but she did eventually explain to Nami why Sanji was upset. She was still angry with Sanji for stopping her from going after Luffy, she told Nami about the conversation she had had with Sanji the other night and how he had told her he'd try to change his attitude towards her but hadn't, and how angry he had gotten because Zoro was leaning against her as he slept.

"You should be more patient with him, Iris. He might be annoying, but he's not a bad person. He's not doing anything harmful by being so nice to you. It's kind of nice to have a guy on the ship who treats women how they deserve to be treated," Nami said.

"If you like that fine. He can treat you like a pretty little princess. I don't like that," Iris grumbled.

"That's not my point. There's also the fact that he's probably started to notice that you and Zoro are closer then he and you are. That can't be easy for him to acknowledge, so it probably will continue to come out in anger towards Zoro. You might have to tell him you care for Zoro to get him off your back," Nami said as she wrapped the bandages around Iris' arm. Nami pulled the bandages tight enough that it actually hurt, but Iris did her best not to show any reaction. That would give Nami too much satisfaction.

"No way!" Iris snapped as she shook her head no. There was no way in hell that she would tell that to Sanji. She didn't want anybody to know how she felt until she had decided what she was going to do about it anyway. She was still trying to feel out if Zoro had any interest in her. Quite frankly she wished that Nami hadn't figured out that she was attracted to Zoro.

Nami finished wrapping up Iris' arm, and Iris did notice that the bruising on her arm was starting to fade. Before Nami left the room she tried again to tell Iris to be nicer to Sanji. Iris didn't respond to Nami and so Nami left the room with a sigh.

Iris sat on the bed for a few minutes as she moved her left hand around trying to assess how well the mobility was coming back. She was able to move her arm at the elbow finally, though the movement sent an electric shock like pain up through her arm. That electric-like pain was hard to deal with, but she was willing to deal with the pain if she was able to move her arm.

As she sat there she wished that Nami would stay out of her business. Nami didn't understand; she liked the special treatment she received from Sanji. It wasn't a bad thing that Nami enjoyed being treated like a princess, but that should also mean it wasn't a bad thing that Iris didn't like being treated like a princess.

When she was satisfied that she had found the extent of how well her arm was currently working she then walked out of her room to join the others. Zoro was still sleeping, Usopp seemed to be working on some sort of new invention, Nami was yelling at Luffy over something or another, and neither Sanji or the whale poachers were on the main deck.

Nami looked over at her with an evil grin and pointed at her. Iris raised an eyebrow as Luffy started walking over to her with a large knot on his head where Nami had obviously hit him. She wasn't quite sure what was going on or why Nami was looking at her so mischievously, but it couldn't be anything good.

"Nami says I have to tell you to be nice to Sanji," he said cheerfully. She glared at Nami and Nami continued to smile at her. Nami had figured out that Iris probably wouldn't try to mend the relationship between herself and Sanji on her own, so Nami was involving Luffy. She'd get Nami back later.

"Why don't you like Sanji?" Luffy asked her.

"I just don't. He's a jerk," she answered. Luffy laughed and agreed with her that Sanji could be mean, but he was part of their crew and a good cook. Luffy liked Sanji and so Iris should too. Luffy also pointed out that Iris could be mean too, even if it was a different kind of mean than Sanji was.

"I'm not mean!" she retorted and again Luffy laughed.

"Be nice to Sanji. Captain's orders! Why don't you go talk to him?" Luffy said with a big, stupid grin on his face. She glared at him, and he laughed even harder. He turned his back to her and started walking off without another word.

She rolled her eyes and sighed loudly. She knew that Nami would make sure that she talked to Sanji to try and clear things up, so she decided to walk into the kitchen and get it over with. Sanji and the two whale poachers were in the kitchen. Sanji was cooking something and the two whale poachers were sitting at the table not talking.

She asked the two to leave the kitchen, and when they ignored her she bared her teeth and threatened to forcefully remove them if they didn't leave. They glared at her and then left, and she realized that perhaps there was some truth to Luffy saying she was mean. The fact that she resorted to threatening these people so easily wasn't exactly nice behavior. She told herself they didn't deserve to be treated nicely though, so it didn't really matter.

Sanji turned around and asked her if she was hungry and would like something to eat, and she shook her head no. She sat down at the table and he hesitantly sat down across from her. She could tell from the expression on his face that he was trying not to set her off again.

"Sanji... Do you know why I'm angry with you?" she asked him.

"I think so..." he responded quietly as he lit a cigarette. "You're angry because I stopped you earlier. You're angry at me for treating you how a lady should be treated. You're mad at me for trying to get that stupid moss head off of you," he said.

"Kind of," she said with a sigh. "What really pisses me off is that even after I told you how I felt the other night, and you said you'd try to respect my feelings, it's obvious you weren't listening to me. I haven't seen any changes in your behavior towards me," she said. Sure, the reasons he had just listed off did make her angry, but it wouldn't make her so angry if she hadn't blatantly told him how she felt not even a week ago.

"I was listening though! I always listen when you're speaking," he replied.

"You may have heard me talking, Sanji, but you weren't listening. If you had listened to my words I'd be seeing differences in your behavior... Even if I was seeing little changes in your behavior I'd have more patience with you," she continued. She knew he didn't want to hear what she was saying; it was written all over his face. They would have to find some sort of middle ground if they were to get along at all, but to find that middle ground he'd have to make some changes.

"Do you have any sisters, Sanji?" she asked him.

"My only family is the old man back at Baratie," he responded.

"Okay... Well, just try and imagine you had a sister. Would you fawn all over her? That would be beyond weird if you treated a relative the way you treat other women. I'd rather you think of me like a sister," she said trying to convey her feelings in a way that maybe he'd understand. She didn't have any siblings, but she still knew that the way people interacted with siblings was quite different from how you treated other people of the opposite sex.

She watched his face as he thought about he words for some sort of reaction. He seemed to be struggling with something, and she got the opinion that her words had brought up some unpleasant thoughts. Perhaps memories? Was he lying about having family other than Zeff? She couldn't imagine that Sanji was biologically related to Zeff, and if that was the case it would mean he had a family. Perhaps he was an orphan and didn't know his birth family? Whatever the reason he seemed to be extremely uncomfortable thinking about the subject.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" she asked breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"I think so... But... Even if I thought of you like a sister it wouldn't mean that I wouldn't try to protect you or do things like stopping you from jumping out of the ship into a dangerous situation," he said after a long pause.

She sighed again at his words. She didn't need his protection, but she wasn't going to get that through to him. He was determined to look out of her just like he would for Nami or any other female. She didn't know what Nami had thought she was going to accomplish by talking to Sanji, but it didn't seem like this talk was productive in the least. She didn't think that there was any point in continuing this conversation any further.

Sanji then got up and turned his back to her as he started boiling a pot of water. She was surprised that he had taken his attention off of her; she must have hit a nerve with something she had said. His mood actually seemed to be getting worse. Since the conversation seemed to be over she stood up to leave the kitchen before the mood soured even further.

"Iris, wait," Sanji said as she walked towards the door. He was still looking at the pot of water he was boiling with his back turned to her, but apparently he wasn't as done with the conversation as she was. "I'm sorry that the way I treat you upsets you. I can't change who I am... I want to respect your wishes, they just happen to go against everything I am. I promise to try, but it won't be an overnight change. Please have some patience with me," he continued.

There was a honesty and brokenness in his voice that she hadn't heard before. He really seemed to be struggling with what she was asking of him, and she supposed that if he was struggling with it then at least he was thinking about what she had said. Hearing the sadness in his voice made her feel bad about how easily she let herself get angry with him.

"I won't change overnight either, Sanji. I'm not a patient person... But I suppose I can give you another shot," she said as she sat back down at the table. He turned his attention back to her with a big smile on his face. His eyes still had a hint of sadness in them, but that sadness seemed to be fading away.

"Really?" he asked and she nodded her head. He then poured the boiling water into a cup with some tea leaves and handed it to her. "I'm no doctor, but I've picked up on a few things over the years. There are a lot of foods that can help a body recover from injuries or illnesses. This particular tea is supposed to help promote healing... So maybe it'll help with your arm," he continued.

"Well I feel like a big jerk now... " she said. Even after she had something that had so clearly upset him he was still being thoughtful of her. If she was in his shoes she wouldn't be able to be so gracious as he was being towards her.

"What?! You're not a jerk! I wasn't trying to make you feel bad...What did I do now?" he asked in an alarmed tone.

"You're being nice to me. I've been mean and impatient with you since the first time I've met you. I... I'm sorry that I'm so bitchy with you..." she said. She now truly felt the need to be apologizing to him; this wasn't just her doing what Luffy had told her to do. Apologizing wasn't an easy thing for her to do, and even though she was sorry for being such a bitch she still struggled with the fact that she didn't like Sanji very well. Hopefully that would change easier than she anticipated. She had, after all, gone from hating Nami to being able to get along with her well enough. She was even starting to like Nami a bit.

Sanji didn't seem to appreciate her calling herself a bitch and tried to dispute that, but she stopped him. She finished drinking the tea that he had made for her and thanked him. She went to walk out of the kitchen again, but once more was stopped by him.

"So we're cool, then?" he asked. She wasn't sure how to answer his question since she still didn't have many fond feelings towards him. She didn't want to say anything to upset him again and feel like an even more awful person, but she couldn't bring herself to lie either.

"As long as we don't have to have this conversation again, I think so," she finally answered. He seemed satisfied with her response and looked at her with a genuinely happy expression on his face. She smiled back at him and felt like they had reached somewhat of an understanding. Hopefully he wouldn't try her patience too much, and hopefully she would be able to be a bit more lenient with him.

Luffy then burst through the kitchen door shouting about snow. Snow? She had never actually seen snow before. Her home island had fairly mild temperatures to the point that she only had to wear long sleeves or a jacket a few weeks out of the year. She followed Luffy back out of the kitchen and looked in amazement as fluffy white fakes fell from the sky and started to pile up on the deck.

She hopped over the railing in front of her to the main deck and caught some snow with her right hand. It was cold, and wet. She watched as Usopp and Luffy made some sort of snowmen. Usopp's definitely looked much better than the snowman that Luffy was making, and she laughed as Luffy stretched his arm through the snowman and into Usopp's snowman while yelling out "Snowman punch!" Usopp wasn't as amused as she was and started trying to hit Luffy.

With all of the snow on their ship it was getting really cold. She decided to grab the jacket she had bought at Loguetown and then came back out to the snowy deck. She saw that Zoro was still sleeping in the same place that she had left him and snow was starting to pile on him. He looked cute with snow sticking in his green hair. She picked up some snow with her good hand and formed it into a snowball and threw it at Zoro.

He made an unhappy groan as he rubbed his eyes, but then looked shocked as he realized there was snow on the boat. She formed another snowball and threw it at him. He glared as he looked around to see who was throwing snowballs at him and when his eyes stopped on her she grinned back at him. He smirked as he started making he took some snow in his hands and stood up. He threw a snowball at her and she ducked out of the way. The snowball his Usopp on the side of the head.

"Hey you jerk! What was that for?!" Usopp shouted.

"I wasn't trying to hit you," Zoro responded.

"Come on Usopp, let's team up against him," Iris suggested. Usopp was alright with that and they both started throwing snowballs at Zoro. Luffy joined in too and they all were throwing snowballs at Zoro. He seemed to be getting a little annoyed to have them all teaming up against him and started throwing as many snowballs at them as he physically could while still maintaining any sort of aim.

A snowball hit her in the face as she was bent down making another snowball and she looked up to see Zoro grinning triumphantly at her. She wiped the snow off her face and laughed as Usopp and Luffy pummeled Zoro with snowballs.

Their snowball fight was cut short when Nami came outside and started shouting out orders. Apparently they were now sailing in the wrong direction and they needed to correct that. The weather was starting to change and winds were blowing hard. Then it was pouring rain and their boat grazed a small glacier. The boat was leaking on the lower decks and she ran down to help contain the problem.

She and Usopp went to work trying to repair the damages. She knew a little about repairs from the repairs she had done around her bar, but throwing water into the mix was making things more difficult. She finally decided to let Usopp handle repairs from inside the ship. She grabbed some boards, a hammer, and stuck some nails in between her teeth and jumped over the edge of the boat after throwing her jacket off to try and stop leaks from the outside.

She swam alongside the bottom of the boat and boarded up any damaged spots she could find and when she was finished she swam back up to the surface of the water and called out for somebody to throw down a rope. Zoro threw the rope over the side and she grabbed onto it. She started to climb up the rope and realized that Zoro was pulling up the rope with her on it as she climbed.

"I could have climbed up on my own," she said as she climbed back in the boat.

"Yeah, I know. I figured you might appreciate a hand up with your arm still being busted," he said. She smiled and thanked him, and then felt a twinge of guilt as she realized that she probably would have been annoyed with Sanji if he had been the one to pull her up.

It seemed that the weather had finally calmed down and that they were headed in the right direction again. Nami shouted something about Iris needing to pay more attention to her arm, and Iris noticed that the bandages were starting to unravel again. They weren't waterproof bandages so it made sense that they wouldn't hold up in the ocean. Nami didn't have to worry about re-wrapping her arm again though; she figured her arm would be fine enough with no bandages on it since it seemed to be healing.

"How did you manage to swim along the bottom of the boat like that in those stormy waters?" Ms. Wednesday asked her. Iris thought about ignoring the question, but decided there was no point in it. She already didn't like the woman, and so wasn't like her opinion of Ms. Wednesday would get worse depending on her reaction.

"I'm a fishman. Stormy waters aren't anything I can't handle," Iris stated. She watched the blue haired woman's face for a reaction, but there wasn't much to see. She didn't look disgusted, or angry, or judgmental. Iris was quite shocked at the lack of reaction.

"Huh. You don't look like a fishman," the woman finally said and then walked off. Iris watched Ms. Wednesday as she walked back to the funny looking blonde man and waited for her to start making remarks about Iris' race. When she couldn't see that happening she tried to turn her attention away from them; she didn't want to be creepily staring at them.

They sailed for awhile longer making sure to keep the boat on the right track, and thankfully didn't run into any more crazy weather. Iris had seen more strange weather today than she had cared to see.

"Guys look! We're at our first destination in the Grand Line!" Nami yelled. Iris looked to where Nami was pointing at and saw the strangest looking island she had ever seen. It looked like a bunch of giant cacti. It definitely didn't look like any island she had seen or even imagined. Perhaps this was just how the Grand Line was. Things that seemed so terribly strange to her were probably commonplace here.

When the two whale poachers noticed that the island was in sight they jumped off the boat and started swimming towards the island after shouting a "bye bye baby" in unison. They were strange individuals to say the least, and Iris was glad they were off the boat. She hoped they wouldn't run into them on the island.

"W-W-What if there are monsters on the island?" Usopp asked nervously.

"There probably are. It's the Grand Line after all," Sanji said.

"Monsters aren't all that scary," Iris said.

"We'll deal with that if it happens," Luffy said with a grin. She could tell by the excited expression on his face that he hoped there would be monsters. He was ready for their adventure to start, and monsters would be an exciting start. She was hoping for some monsters herself; she was ready to test her strength out against creatures from the Grand Line.

"You guys are all nuts! I think I'm coming down with my I-can't-go-on-the-island-disease..." Usopp said with his legs shaking under him. It was pathetic to watch how much of a big scaredy cat he was. If he was this scared before they even got to the island she wasn't sure what good martial arts would be for him. She would still teach him like she had agreed to do, but it would probably be pointless. Cowards had no business fighting with any sort of hand to hand combat.

Nami then explained how they would have to stay at Whiskey Peak until the log pose had recorded the magnetic field for the island. The time it took to get a reading was different on every island, so they might have to stay only a few hours or a few days. Iris didn't really care how the log pose worked, but she was somewhat intrigued about there not being any sort of set time before they could take off for the next island.

"Look, there's a river that takes us through the island! Let's go!" Luffy shouted excitedly.

"What if there's a monster?" Usopp cried out.

"So what if there is? Besides... According the the newspaper from the other day the government thinks I'm some sort of monster. Just think, you've been travelling with a monster all this time. So why would a new monster be that scary?," Iris jokingly said to him with a smirk. She thought he was going to pee himself he was so worked up. She had hoped her words might reassure him even a little, but he still looked as scared as ever.

"Don't worry about monsters," Luffy said with a laugh as he eyed the river. The excitement he felt was practically oozing out of him. This was their first stop in the Grand Line, and it was exciting. She looked around at her crew mates and they all, with the exception of Usopp, looked excited.

Luffy's expression spoke of pure bliss at the adventures that were surely awaiting them. Zoro had a confident and sexy smirk on his face. Nami looked proud of herself for having used the log pose correctly and getting them to their first island stop. Sanji had a grin on his face as he looked like he was ready for whatever might come their way. Then there was Usopp who had shaking legs and a panicked expression. She knew the grin on her face gave away her feelings as well; she was pretty damn excited.

Their boat sailed into the river that led up through the island and she could hear the sounds of human voices coming from the shore. She couldn't tell what they were saying, but they were definitely human voices. The others seemed to have noticed the voices as well and were looking around to try and find who and where the voices were coming from.

Suddenly there were cheers surrounding them and large banners being held up welcoming them to the island. There were cheers of pirates being the brave heroes of the seas and Iris' guard immediately shot straight up. There was no way that the first island in the Grand Line was so welcoming of pirates. If that was the case the navy would surely take advantage of that to capture everybody who came through a friendly, pirate supporting island. There was something incredibly wrong with this situation.

She again looked to her crew mates to try and see what they were thinking. Luffy was still as excited as ever, Usopp looked as though his worries were fading, and Sanji was making goo-goo eyes at the women waving banners at them. Zoro and Nami looked as suspicious of all this as she felt. She was glad that at least half of them were smart enough to know that this was too good to be true.

When the boat docked Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp immediately climbed down off the boat. She looked to Zoro and then Nami and knew that they were all on the same page. Since Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp were too trusting they would have to be extra watchful of what was going on. Nami wouldn't be able to do much if these people tried to stage a fight, and she would probably go off looking for treasure at some point, but she could at least alert them if she notice trouble starting.

They were greeted by a tall man with hair that looked like the white powered wigs that were pictured on historical figures and he had an strange way of talking. He kept clearing his throat and then singing a few notes during the middle of his sentences. That would surely get annoying in no time at all.

The man in the powdered wig introduced himself as the mayor of Whiskey Peak, and he invited them to stay the night. He said he had a banquet prepared and that they were free to eat and drink as much as they liked. There was no way Iris was going to take food or drinks from such a suspicious person.

Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp were already on their way towards the where the banquet was being held and so she followed them. She was feeling annoyed at their level of stupidity, and she was trying her best not to let her annoyance cloud her focus. She was trying to be overly aware of her surroundings so that she would notice the instant somebody tried to attack.

Once they had gotten to where the banquet was being held Luffy instantly started pigging out while Sanji was surrounded by women giggling at his every word. Usopp started telling tall tales to a crowd of people. She was tempted to call him out on his lies, but decided it wasn't worth the effort.

Some people came up to her and offered her some food and some sake, and she turned them down. They wouldn't be deterred though; they persisted that she eat and drink and have a good time. When one of the men grabbed onto her arm as he tried to persuade him she kicked her foot up and kicked the man in the crotch. He cried out in pain and the other people around her took a few steps back. She was waiting for somebody to come at her for kicking on of them, but it didn't happen.

"I don't want your food or drinks. Leave me alone," she growled. They seemed upset that she was refusing them, but the did walk off. The people in the room seemed to all be watching her out of the corner of their eyes now. She stood near the edge of the room with her right hand on her hip as her left arm hung by her side, and glared at anybody that looked at her.

Suddenly somebody wrapped their arms around her shoulders from behind and just as she was about to stomp onto the foot of the person behind her with all of her might she heard a familiar voice. That familiar voice belonged to Zoro her face turned a brighter red than a tomato, and he was telling her to loosen up a little and enjoy the party that was being thrown for them.

"Why would I do that?" she asked him after a long pause. She was letting her guards relax much more than she should be, but having Zoro's muscular arms around her was making it hard to focus on her surroundings. She had definitely noticed how muscular and toned his arms were before now, but having them wrapped around her was even hotter than she had thought it would be. She didn't know if she'd be able to focus on anything else if it continued.

"They're trying to get us drunk. I don't know what they're after, but if we play along with them we might find out. So put on a smile, and go pretend to get drunk," he said in a sexy whispered tone sent chills down her spine. He probably had no idea what he was doing to her at that moment, but man he was driving her crazy. She bit down on her tongue hard enough to draw blood trying to snap herself back to her senses.

"I'm not a good actress. They'll definitely notice that I'm acting and not sincere," she responded.

"I don't think they're smart enough to notice that you're acting. Come on, let's get something to drink," he said as he released her from his arms. She felt a sense of disappointment as his arms slipped off of her, but did as he asked and went to go find something to drink.

She started to walk towards where the booze was being distributed, but was stopped when she felt a quick slap to her butt. Zoro walked out from behind her with a smirk on his face, and a flush to his cheeks that gave away that he had already been drinking. He walked past her to get another drink as she paused momentarily.

She knew her face was bright red again and it continued to get redder and warmer as the reality of what just happened set in. Zoro had just smacked her butt and had held her in his arms. She had initially thought that he had put his arms around her because he was trying to restrain her from causing a scene and going after somebody again or starting a fight, but perhaps there was more to it. There was also the fact that he had been drinking; he could be acting this way because of the alcohol.

Whatever the reason she couldn't help but have her hopes start to skyrocket as her heart raced. He was showing interest in her. Her brain was practically screaming at her to focus her attention back on the situation on hand, but her heart was too busy being falling further for him. Her thoughts and feelings were going in a million different directions at a million miles a minute.

She was called back to her senses when Zoro called her over and she promptly responded by joining him and getting a drink. She quickly sniffed the drink to make sure it didn't smell funny and took a sip when she deemed it fine. Zoro was getting himself into some sort of drinking competition with the locals and she was curious how well he would hold out drinking so much while still be able to keep his senses.

Trying to get herself to focus back on the situation they were in she decided to look around the room to see where everybody else was and what they were doing. Luffy was still eating, Usopp was still telling lies, Sanji was still surrounded by women, and Nami was in a drinking competition much like Zoro.

The people around them genuinely seemed nice and welcoming, but there had to be a catch to all of this. This was too good to be true. Especially for them being pirates. She took another sip of her drink trying to pretend like she was enjoying herself at the party, and while she was enjoying the attention she was receiving from Zoro she didn't know if that would come across like she was having a good time. She probably looked flustered more than anything since she didn't know how to handle the attention she was getting from him.

"It's good booze isn't it?" one of the villagers asked her and she nodded her head in agreement while trying to smile back at them. Truth be told it was average tasting stuff at best. It wasn't terrible, but wasn't great either.

She looked back to Zoro who looked like he was getting wasted as he sat on couch next to where she stood as he continued on with the drinking competition. His face was thoroughly flushed and his speech was starting to slur. He looked up to her with a mischievous grin on his face and she instantly forgave him for getting into a stupid drinking competition.

He then grabbed onto her hips and pulled her down onto his lap. To say she felt awkward sitting on his lap in front of her crew mates and all these other people was an understatement. She was more than happy to be receiving this attention from him, but that didn't stop her from feeling awkward. She had never let herself get so close to a human before to even allow herself to be attracted to them, and now she was sitting in the lap of a human she was insanely attracted to in from of a bunch of other humans.

When the villagers around them had their attentions turned to other things Zoro rested his chin on her shoulder as she sat in his lap and he once again instructed her to look like she was having a good time. His words were no longer slurred as he spoke to her, and she realized that he was only acting drunk. He was a good actor; she had totally bought that he was drunk right along with the villagers.

When the villagers had found another person to challenge Zoro in the drinking competition he went back to acting drunk. He had one arm wrapped around her waist and held a glass of alcohol with the other.

She decided she would try and ignore her normal reservations and let herself enjoy the moment. She was sitting on the lap of the man she had been hoping would notice her since he walked through the doors of her bar looking for Luffy a few weeks back. She was happy to be in this situation even if it was suspicious, because if nothing else she was finally getting attention from Zoro. She slid on Zoro's lap to an angle where she was able to put her feet up on the couch and drape one of her arms over his shoulders.

She then put her cup to her lips and took a large gulp of the alcohol. This stuff really wasn't all that potent, and she would be able to drink a lot of it before she felt any sort of effect from it. She could probably out drink anybody in this room including Zoro and Nami. She had developed quite the drinking problem after her dad had been arrested by the navy, and she ended up developing an extremely high tolerance to alcohol because of that.

There was also the fact that she had grown up in a bar and ran that bar starting at the age of 17. She had ran a bar on her own for four years, and she had made enough money to support her drinking habit over the years. She had developed a fine sense of taste for good alcohol, and a high tolerance to even the hardest of alcohols.

After out drinking 13 people Zoro pretended to pass out. He leaned back on the couch and shut his eyes. He was definitely buzzed at this point, though she was impressed that he was able to drink that much and still not be drunk. She glanced around the room to see Luffy passed out in a food coma, and Nami was still drinking. She didn't immediately see Sanji or Usopp, but she could hear Usopp somewhere still talking about how great he was. Sanji was surely drunk off his own hormones with all the women giving him attention.

As things seemed to be quieting down Iris decided she would pretend to pass out as well. She collapsed down onto the couch as casually as she could hoping it didn't look too forced and shut her eyes. Her body was draped over his lap still as she pretended to sleep, and she would be fine with getting to stay like this for awhile.

Since she had nothing to do but pretend to be asleep her mind started to run wild. What would happen next between her and Zoro? The pessimistic side of her still didn't believe he felt anything serious towards her; she was part fishman after all and he was a human. Even though he had seemed fine with her being a fishman when she had told them, that didn't mean he would be romantically interested in her.

Even though she had doubts about what was going on, there was still a big part of her that was hopeful that he was sincere in his actions towards her tonight. It would be pretty awful of him to act like this if he didn't feel some sort of attraction to her.

She knew she needed to quit overthinking the situation, but it was difficult. Pondering over every little detail wouldn't do any good, and it was just getting her worked up. If she kept thinking pessimistic thoughts she was liable to drive herself into a panic, and if she got her hopes up too high and then they were dashed she'd be heartbroken. Instead she should enjoy the moment and see where things go. That would be the wise thing for her to do.

When she couldn't hear any noises in the room any longer other than some snoring she opened up one of her eyes a little bit to see that the lights were out and the villagers had vacated the room. She opened up both of her eyes, but didn't move. She didn't really want to move off of Zoro's lap unless she had to.

"Are you awake still, Iris?" Zoro asked her quietly.

"Yeah," she responded.

"These people are a group of bounty hunters. I've been invited to join them multiple times... I knew there was something familiar about their code names. They're all part of the organization Baroque Works," he said, and that made sense to her. Like she had thought; this was all too good to be true. If they were all bounty hunters that would also explain why the navy wasn't hounding the island. The navy wouldn't have to worry about picking up the pirates if somebody was already doing it for them.

"I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable tonight... I let the booze effect me a little..." he said and let his voice trail off. She decided it was probably time for her to get off his lap, and so she sat up and swung her legs off the couch so that she was sitting next to him now. She looked over to him and couldn't read what he was thinking. The look on his face was intense, but she thought that probably had more to do with his awareness of the situation around them. There was a softness in his eyes too though that made her heart melt a bit.

"Nah. You didn't. I was kind of surprised though," she responded. He opened his mouth to respond, but there was suddenly some noises outside and he stood up. All the softness that was in his eyes a moment ago was gone.

"We're going to have to talk later," he said, and she nodded her head. She was disappointed, but he was right. If these bounty hunters were going to be making their move then that meant they would also need to spring into action. He silently and quickly made a beeline for the back door and was quickly out of the building.

She sat for a moment longer and decided to try once more to move her arm. Movement was slowly coming back, and she would at least be able to move her arm enough to give the impression she could use it. If all the people that had been in this room earlier were bounty hunters then that meant there were a whole lot of them here, and probably more that hadn't been at the party. She didn't want to show any weaknesses in a fight against so many people, so it would be good if she could appear fully functioning.

She heard a noise from behind her and immediately jumped to her feet. Nami was making her way to her feet, which meant that she had been acting as well. When Nami locked eyes with Iris a large grin formed on Nami's face. Nami motioned for Iris to come over to her, and Iris reluctantly walked over to her.

"What was that?" Nami whispered excitedly.

"I don't know what you're referring to," Iris whispered.

"You know exactly what I'm referring to!" Nami whispered a little louder.

"We really don't have time to talk about this right now..." Iris whispered. Nami agreed while making Iris promise to fill her in later, and then left saying she was going to go look for treasure to steal.

Iris looked around the room once more to see Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp still passed out and snoring. She couldn't figure out how those three could be relaxed enough to fall asleep here. This was their first stop in the notoriously dangerous Grand Line, and there was no way a group of pirates would be treated so warmly. They were idiots.

She sighed and then walked out the back door making sure to shut it behind her. She could hear a commotion around the front of the building, and she felt an excitement fill her body. She was still on an emotional high from the physical affection she had receive from Zoro, and the excitement of the looming fight was making adrenaline pump through her body. She was ready to get this thing started!


	15. Chapter 15

As Iris started to walk around the building towards the front she stopped just before reaching the front. She leaned against the side of the building where a few barrels of booze were blocking her from being seen. She could hear voices talking about them, and she recognized two of the voices as being the whale poachers.

She tried to listen in to what they were saying, and had to inch closer in hopes of making out what they were saying. The bits and pieces she could hear had to do with these people severely underestimating their abilities. They didn't seem to think that a group of newbie pirates would be worth throwing such an extravagant party for. Underestimating them would be these idiots downfall; her and the rest of the crew were a force to be reckoned with.

She then heard the man who had introduced himself as the mayor bringing up the bounty posters for her and Luffy. The people around him seemed shocked to see that they had two people on their crew with bounties, though Ms. Wednesday didn't seem too shocked that the fishman had a bounty on her head. Ms. Wednesday was under the impression that all fishmen were aggressive creatures that should have bounties on their heads.

The comment made Iris angry instantly. While Iris was an aggressive individual, and she was well aware of that, it didn't mean that all fishmen were that way. She had heard stories from her dad about growing up at Fishman Island, and about how diverse fishmen were. As far as their temperaments went they were as varied as humans were. Physically they were even more varied than humans. Fishmen were each unique individuals that had their own personalities; it wasn't right to judge them all like that. This is why she didn't like humans. Most humans anyway.

What seemed particularly unfair was that Iris could almost guarantee that if she asked about mermaids, who also were from Fishman Island, that the response would be much more positive. People loved mermaids. Mermaids didn't have it easy either since people were always trying to kidnap them; mermaids could be sold for a whole lot of money. Still, the everyday average person had very pleasant feelings towards mermaids. It wasn't right in Iris' mind.

She decided now was as good a time as any to launch an attack against these pathetic bounty hunters. She was going to further reinforce the fact that fishmen were aggressive into their puny brains, but that probably didn't matter. There wasn't any point in trying to change the minds of such stupid and racist humans.

"It's nice to know people think of my kind so highly," Iris growled as she walked around the corner to the front of the building.

"What? Weren't you just passed out?" the mayor asked in shock.

"Are you joking? How stupid would I be to fall asleep around such suspicious idiots?" she retorted. The four people glared at her and she grinned back at them. Some more people started coming out of hiding with all sorts of different weapons, and they were glaring at her too. She knew she wouldn't be able to take them all on by herself with just one arm, but she wasn't going to let them see that. She would attack head on and try to look as confident as she could, and she would hope that Zoro was around somewhere and would jump in to back her up.

"Are you trying to start this without me? I want in on this," Zoro said from somewhere above just as she was about to go into attack mode. She looked up to see where he was and saw him standing on top of the building they were just in getting ready to draw his swords.

"What are you up there for?" she asked him.

"Thought I'd get a better viewpoint so I could see everything going on around here," he said.

"Learn anything I should know from you viewpoint?" she asked.

"Not really. I can see about 100 people around, but that's nothing too exciting," he said.

"Oh. Well I'm ready to start this, so if you're wanting to fight too you'd better join in before I swiftly deal with all of them," she said with a grin

"Don't hog all the fun. I want to try out my new swords," he said and they jumped down off the building. He landed next to her and they both started their attack on the bounty hunters.

A group of bounty hunters surrounded her. They were holding guns and knives, but none of them seemed overly threatening; these people were all small fry. She noticed that one of the people that had surrounded her had a sword and she knew she wanted it. She had learned in her fight against the Black Cat Pirates that even if she didn't know how to use a sword it was a good defensive tool. She could use a sword to block against other weapons and to keep a bigger distance between her foe and herself.

She made a quick movement towards the man holding the sword and seemed to catch him by surprise. She was able to grab onto the sword and yank it out of his grip without too much resistance. When he realized what had just happened he became angry and started swinging his fists at her, but he was obviously not used to hand to hand combat. He left his middle completely unguarded and she was able to plant her foot in his stomach and kick him back and into another person knocking them both out.

"Come on guys... Is this the best you've got?" she taunted with a smirk. A bunch of them tried to rush her at once, but they weren't even worth her time. She wanted to fight somebody stronger. These people weren't any stronger than the idiots she had beat up back home. That meant there were still a bunch of weaklings in the Grand Line too. She was able to jump up and kick her feet out into the splits and jump off the humans she landed on, and then kick them in the head to knock them out.

She placed the sword in her left hand as she landed back on the ground and tried not to flinch from the pain of grabbing onto it. This was the first time she had tried to hold onto anything with her left hand since her injury from Arlong, and it still hurt a great deal. She knew she wouldn't be able to do much with the sword in her left hand, but it would at least make it appear her arm wasn't busted to the extent it was.

"What's with the bandages girlie? You hurt? It wouldn't be smart to take all of us on with an injury," one of the men approaching her said. She rolled her eyes; of course they noticed her arm just as soon as she had just finished thinking that she was making it appear not so injured.

"These things?" she asked as she pointed to her bandaged up arm. "Nah, these things are all the rage back in the East Blue. Biggest fashion trend to hit the market in years. Look pretty cool don't they?," she said with a cocky grin. They seemed to be questioning her response, but they couldn't be positive she was lying.

"You don't seem that strong. I can't figure out why you have such a large bounty," one of the bounty hunters finally said. He looked as if he was going to continue talking, and so she took the opportunity to shove the palm of her hand him under his chin and push upwards. A large popping noise was heard as his jaw dislocated, and it seemed the bounty hunters were starting to take her more seriously. They pointed their weapons at her and glared at her.

She grabbed onto the ankle of the man she had just dislocated the jaw of and spun on her heel to get some momentum. His body lifted off the ground and she sent him flying into a group of 4 other people.

She was annoyed at herself for having to rely on momentum to get the man off the ground; she should have been able to lift him up easier even with one arm. The injuries she had received from the fight against the Arlong Pirates must have taken a bigger toll on her than she had thought. Or perhaps she had been too lax in her training since the fight because she was too concerned about babying her injured arm. Whatever the reason was she would have to at least double her training efforts to get to where she thought she should be.

She continued fighting against the people that came against her, and even with her struggles she wasn't impressed with any of them. If she had been fighting at 100% this fight would be long over by now. She glanced around to see where Zoro was and saw him slashing his way through the bounty hunters like they were nothing. She'd have to try significantly harder if she wanted to keep up with his strength.

"You don't have time to take your attention off of us," a voice said. She turned her attention back to the bounty hunters and saw tall and manly woman walking towards her. This woman looked strong; she was definitely in a different league than the people she had been dealing with. There was something about this woman that really ticked her off; she was too confident in her abilities. As Iris could feel her blood pressure rising she was getting more pumped for the fight

"Don't flatter yourself. You aren't worth my full attention," Iris retorted. The woman picked up a barrel and threw it at Iris with enough force and speed that Iris was barely able to dodge it. The barrel burst behind her as it hit a building a some kind of liquid splattered about. It was probably some form of alcohol, and it would definitely assist Iris in the fight.

She ran towards a spot where the alcohol was pooling into a puddle and stuck her hands in it after dropping the sword. She could hear the woman chasing after her, and when she heard the foot prints close enough she stuck her hand down into the liquid and threw a bunch of the alcohol at the woman.

The alcohol left Iris' fingers like bullets. It was a fairly common technique that fishmen used according to her dad, but people that hadn't come into contact with fishmen before probably wouldn't know that. If an opponent was just expecting to be splashed with a liquid they would have no reason to dodge the attack.

The woman didn't dodge Iris' attack and was hit by the full force of it. The woman seemed extremely surprised to have the alcohol hurt her, and it stopped her momentarily as she cried out in pain. Her face had been cut up from the attack and it looked like Iris had even managed to get the alcohol to reach the woman's eyes.

Iris used the woman's shock against her and ran towards her. The woman was rubbing her eyes trying to get the alcohol out of them as Iris jumped up and rammed her shoulder into the tall woman's chest to knock her down. The woman tried to maintain her balance, but wasn't able to as Iris then planted her foot into the same spot she had rammed her shoulder.

The woman fell and Iris tried to pin the woman down, but with only one working arm it was difficult. This woman was extremely strong and at least twice the size of Iris, and she was starting to struggle a lot. Iris knew that size differences didn't necessarily matter to a trained martial artist like she was, but she was having a hard time getting a good position to pin the woman down because of her own injuries.

"Get off of me, you stupid bitch!" the woman growled.

"You should at least say please first," Iris responded. The woman was all but recovered from the shock of being hit by the alcohol bullets and Iris could feel that she was going to be thrown off of the woman. Iris grimaced at the realization that she was going to have to resort to biting this woman. This woman was stronger than her, and she wasn't going to be able to win this fight any other way in her current condition. She absolutely hated having to resort to using her sharp teeth to win a fight, but it was better than the alternative of losing.

Iris closed her eyes for a brief moment to prepare herself mentally for what she was about to do, and then leaned over and bit into the woman's shoulder. The woman screamed out in pain as Iris' teeth dug into her flesh. Blood filled Iris' mouth as she dug her teeth in further. It took every ounce of control she had not to vomit.

The more the woman struggled the further Iris' teeth dug in, and when the woman seemed to realize that Iris wasn't going to let go she started hitting Iris to try and get her off. Iris used to full force of her jaw and crushed the woman's shoulder blade. The woman screamed again and her arm went limp, but she continue to try and beat Iris with her other arm.

Iris removed her teeth from the woman's shoulder and immediately bit down into the other shoulder. She felt the woman grab onto her neck and try to force Iris off that way, but Iris wasn't going to let go. She was determined to win this fight; there was no way she was loosing so early on in their journey. This woman may have been physically stronger than she was, but there was no way that this woman's will was stronger than Iris'.

The woman seemed to realize that Iris still wasn't letting go and switched her grip onto Iris' hair. She grabbed onto Iris' bun and started trying to pull Iris' hair out of her head, and that instantly infuriated Iris. Iris loved her hair since it was the one thing about her that made her feel feminine, and she took pride in her long hair. Grabbing onto her hair was a big mistake on this woman's part.

Iris quickly clamped her jaw down on the woman's shoulder and kept it there until she felt the woman's hand go limp. She let go of the woman's shoulder, but did so in a way that a large piece of flesh was torn off. Iris spit the flesh to the side again trying not to vomit and stood back up. This woman wouldn't be able to fight any longer.

"She beat Ms. Monday?" Iris could hear being murmured through the crowd of people that had gathered to watch the fight. This Ms. Monday was definitely significantly stronger than the others around here, and the people seemed to be shocked to see her go down.

When the reality of her beating Ms. Monday set in the people around her started to run. It angered her to see these cowards run away without a second thought about their friend who was lying on the ground. She thought about giving chase, but decided they weren't worth her time. It was none of her concern if they were low life scum that were fine with leaving an injured comrade behind.

When she looked back to the scene of the fight she saw that the bounty hunters had been taken care of. Zoro had done a number on them without her noticing. She wished she had done more to contribute to the fight. She also noticed that Luffy was now outside, and he was still passed out. She looked around for Zoro and noticed he was back on top of a building holding a bottle of sake.

"Why is Luffy out here?" she called out to Zoro.

"These idiots tried to use him as a hostage," he replied.

She turned her attention back to her surroundings and saw that Ms. Wednesday, Mr. 9, and the mayor had been taken down. The mayor started to try and get back up, and two new people were now walking up to the scene. These people had a completely different vibe than any of the people she had come across in this town. They were definitely strong.

She expected the new people to come after them, but they were focused on the bounty hunters instead. They had an arrogance about them that ticked her off when she notice it; she immediately couldn't stand them. It probably didn't matter if she couldn't stand them though, since they didn't seem to notice her presence. Their attentions were locked solely onto the bounty hunters.

"If you two are here we can beat this lousy pirates!" Ms. Wednesday said as she tried to push herself back up.

"Back you guys up? How laughable! Why would we be sent here to the front lines to deal with some worthless pirates like them?" the woman laughed. The woman had on an ugly yellow dress with lemons on it, and had short yellow hair that matched the dress. She was carrying an umbrella, and had an annoying grin running across her smug face.

"We're here to eliminate the people who found out the boss' secret. Some people in the organization have been snooping around and have found out the boss' identity. Since our organization operates on secrecy it is of utmost importance that people remain anonymous. Finding out the boss' identity is the biggest crime that could be committed. After some digging we found out that an agent from a certain kingdom has infiltrated Baroque Works," the man said.

Since the two newcomers were in the middle of monologuing she decided to use to opportunity to get the still passed out Luffy out of the area, and then get everybody on the ship and off the island. It didn't matter to her if the stupid organization was having some sort of internal conflict, though it did sound somewhat interesting.

She got to Luffy and started to roll his over-inflated and bloated body back towards where Sanji and Usopp should still be sleeping, but stopped when something that piqued her interest was said. The lady with the umbrella said that Ms. Wednesday was actually a princess from some county, and that the mayor was head of the royal guard for the same country.

"Come on, let's get out of here," she heard Zoro say. Zoro was now pulling Luffy away from the fight that was surely going to go down, and she wondered where he was taking Luffy. If he was trying to get back to where the others were still sleeping he was going the wrong way.

"Let's go back to where the others are so we can get off this island," Iris suggested.

"What do you think I'm already doing?" he asked. She sighed and grabbed onto his wrist and started leading him him in the other direction. "What are you doing Iris?" he asked sounding annoyed.

"You were going in the wrong direction," she responded. The annoyance on his face disappeared and was replaced by embarrassment. He mumbled something that she wasn't able to make out, and she felt a little bad for embarrassing him. His embarrassment was kind of cute though.

"Please... Please save the princess!" a voice said right as somebody grabbed onto her ankle. She looked down to see the mayor grabbing onto her ankle with one hand and Zoro's ankle with the other. "Please, I'm begging you! I'm not strong enough to face them. They're ability users... But maybe you two can take them on! You both are very strong!" the man begged.

She shook him off her ankle and glared at him. He had been trying to kill all of them moments ago, and now he had the nerve to ask for their help? She didn't care if he and his pretty little princess were in trouble, and she told him so. If he had been capturing and killing pirates that had just entered the Grand Line he deserved whatever was coming to him.

"If you get her back to Alabasta safely you will be rewarded greatly! I beg of you!" the man cried out hysterically as the two higher ups from his organization chased after Ms. Wednesday. Zoro started telling the man off, but then a voice interrupted them asking about the reward.

"No, no, no! We have no reason to help them, Nami!" Iris shouted when she realized what was going on. Nami heard reward, and she was going to try and make them protect the princess and then Nami would want to keep the full reward for herself.

"Just think of what we could do with the reward money from saving a princess! We'd be rich!" Nami said.

"You mean you'd be rich," Iris said.

"Same thing," Nami said with a grin as she bent over to the mayor to negotiate the reward. When Nami had decided that they would save the princess she instructed both Zoro and Iris to go after the princess and to save her, but neither of them were happy with her plan.

"I'm not part of your stupid scheme," Zoro said.

"I've already said no. These people tried to kill us. They can all go rot in hell for all I care," Iris grumbled.

"Come on guys... I just made an agreement with him! You guys go save her and I can have my money! It'll work out great!" Nami said.

"You go save her then," Iris said.

"So what I'm hearing is that you two aren't strong enough to go save her... Fine... I suppose if you're not strong enough it can't be helped..." Nami said. Iris felt her blood pressure rising at the comment, but she knew exactly what Nami was trying to do. She was trying to anger them with her insults so that they would have to prove her wrong. Iris wasn't going to give into Nami.

"What did you say?" Zoro yelled, and Iris sighed. He was reacting exactly how Nami wanted. He continued shouting and getting worked up, and Nami continued to egg him on. Eventually he agreed to go save the princess and stormed off, but not before telling Nami what an awful person she was.

"He's such an idiot! He's so easy to manipulate!" Nami cackled.

"You're evil," Iris said.

"Aren't you going to go help him?" Nami asked.

"Why? I'm not going along with your stupid plan. I don't care what happens to that girl," Iris said.

"You're so cold. Just what I'd expect from a fishman," Nami said.

"What did you just say, you bitch?!" Iris yelled, and then bit her tongue when she saw the evil grin on Nami's face. She was playing right into Nami's hands, but she was going to stop now. She wasn't going to let Nami get the best of her; she was going to hold her ground and not go along with Nami's plan to make money.

To remove herself from the situation she decided she'd go get Sanji and Usopp and get them back to the ship so that they could leave whenever the others got to the ship. She was going to take Luffy too, but he was nowhere in sight. He must have woken up and wandered off, but he was strong enough that she was sure he could handle anything he ran into.

She walked back to the building that the boys were sleeping in and found both of them still there passed out. She thought about waking both of them up, but if Sanji was woken up he would definitely get roped into Nami's schemes. The thought of carrying him back to the boat herself made her skin crawl though; if he woke up while she was carrying him he would definitely freak out about her doing so. She didn't want that attention from him, so she decided waking up Usopp and making Usopp carry Sanji was the best plan.

"Psst... Usopp, wake up," she whispered as she shook him awake. He looked up at her groggily and seemed somewhat confused as to why she was waking him up. She quickly explained that they were on an island that was filled with bounty hunters, and that the party was to mask their true intentions. His eyes widened as he listened to her and she could see fear start to take over his eyes. When he started to get loud she put her hand over his mouth.

"Quiet, you idiot! Do you want somebody outside to realize you're awake? And we don't want to wake up Sanji... Nami is trying to get us involved in some dangerous shit in order for herself some get reward money. Do you want Sanji to realize that? He will do whatever he can to help her if she asks," she explained.

She then instructed him to get Sanji and take him back to the boat. He started to protest and say that she should carry him back, but he shut up when she glared at him.

"That training you wanted from me starts now. Your first goal is to carry him back to the boat without waking him up," she said.

"That seems awfully convenient for you," Usopp grumbled.

"It is. And quit wasting time. The longer we hang out around here the bigger chance of us getting caught is," she said. She wasn't really too worried about anybody getting them since all of their attentions were probably on the princess, but using Usopp's fears against him was a useful tactic.

"Fine..." he grumbled under his breath as he tried to figure out how he would carry Sanji without waking him up. Iris decided the easiest way would be for her to try and get Sanji up on Usopp's back in a pseudo-piggyback position. Sanji's feet would drag a little with how he was positioned on Usopp's back, and she hoped they would be able to get him back to the Going Merry without waking him. It was the best she could think of in the moment though.

They walked through the town and Iris could hear some fighting going on, but as they walked towards the Going Merry the sounds were getting further and further away. That seemed to be reassuring Usopp and he seemed to be calming down a bit.

When the reached where the Going Merry was docked she realized they'd probably have to wake up Sanji to get him up onto the boat. She could probably get him up there if she really wanted to, but she didn't have any desire to carry him up the ladder.

"You can drop him Usopp," she said.

"Won't that wake him up?" Usopp asked.

"Probably, but it'll be easier for you to climb up into the boat if you're not carrying him," she responded. Usopp apparently hadn't thought about that, and he dropped Sanji. Sanji landed with a thud and started yelling at Usopp when he realized that Usopp was the one who so rudely dropped him.

"Shut it, Sanji," she said. He wanted to know why he was brought back to the boat when he'd rather stay on the island a bit longer. There were, after all, lots of very friendly and beautiful women on this island. She cut him off and asked him to get up on the boat. He was torn over what to do because he wanted to please her and do as she was asking, but he also didn't want to leave the island. She tried to explain to him that things weren't what they seemed on the island, but he was having a hard time believing her.

"Are you calling me a liar, Sanji? Please... I need you to get on the boat. I want to be ready to leave when the others get back here," she asked trying to sound pleasant. He agreed to what she was asking and climbed up into the boat, followed by Usopp and herself.

As she was climbing up she heard a loud explosion and turned to look and see what had happened. There were flames reaching up towards the sky on the other end of the city and she could practically feel the heat from where she was. She had no desire to run into whatever or whoever had caused that explosion, and she hoped the others were alright.

She heard Usopp screaming and freaking out about the explosion, and then going on about how they were all going to die. He was a hypochondriac to say the least. Sure, that explosion was definitely dangerous, but there was no point in freaking out about it. Freaking out and panicking only led to bad decisions being made.

She hurried up into the boat and was greeted by a large duck-like animal. Sanji was already thinking of ways to cook it, and she shooed him away from the animal. It was quite cute, and seemed harmless. She walked up to it and it looked back at her. She reached out her hand slowly as to not scare the animal, and then started petting it when it didn't seem too bothered by her.

She ran her hand through its feathers and it seemed quite happy. She couldn't help but smile at the animal; she generally preferred animals to humans. Animals didn't care that she was half fishman like humans did. Animals weren't judgmental about the webbing between her fingers and toes, or her sharp teeth. Animals were easier to get along with than humans.

Usopp came up and asked her if she was going to really start training him now, or if she was just going to continue using him whenever it was convenient to do things like carrying a passed out Sanji. She laughed at his smart ass question and told him that once they had safely set sail from the island she would start his training.

Shortly thereafter the others were climbing up onto the boat. The blue haired princess was with them, and going on about not being able to find her duck. Iris pointed to the duck that was already on the boat, and the girl became ecstatic. Iris found out the duck was named Carue, and he was the princess' pet.

"Why did you have to bring her? And what was that explosion?" Iris asked, and Nami tried to hit her. She dodged Nami's fist and threatened that she'd hit back if Nami ever hit her. "I'm not like the boys. I won't let you hit me and not defend myself just because you're weaker than me," she growled.

"You're such a jerk, Iris. You should really learn to be a better person; we're taking her back to her land. She's had a bad night, so learn to play nice," Nami said as she glared at Iris. While Iris was trying to get along with Nami, and for the most part it seemed to be working, but she wasn't going to let Nami walk over her. She didn't care if it made Nami angry; the girl needed to learn that she needed to respect others if she wanted respect. She seemed to think she deserved just for being herself, but that wasn't how Iris worked. If somebody wanted respect they would have to be respectful of her too.

"So tell me, princess, why were you part of such a heinous organization? Doesn't seem like a very princessy thing to do if you ask me," Iris asked as she turned away from Nami and to the blue haired woman. Even looking disheveled and upset from the events of the night the woman was pretty. Iris was trying to prevent her jealousy from coming out though as she didn't want to appear petty.

The princess introduced herself to Iris as Vivi, and explained about her homeland and the civil war that was going on. She explained that she had joined Baroque Works to try and stop the civil war and the person who was trying to use the civil war to his advantage to destroy Alabasta and create his own nation. The person behind all of this was a Warlord name Crocodile. They were all in danger for knowing that bit of information since Crocodile surely would know soon if he didn't already about the pirates' knowledge of his secret.

Iris had heard of Crocodile. She had come across his name the same way she had come across Mihawk's name; she had been studying the world government after her dad had been arrested. She didn't know what his ability was though as she hadn't come across that in any of her research. She hadn't paid too much attention to him in her research because it hadn't seemed important at the time.

"So we're going after a Warlord?" Iris asked Luffy and he nodded with a big smile on his face. If they were going to be facing a Warlord she would have to kick her training up a few notches. She was in no way shape or form ready to face such a strong individual.

She decided she would start training to get herself back into better shape, but was stopped short when a woman she had never seen was suddenly on their boat congratulating them on their escape from Baroque Works. The woman had jet black hair, and was wearing a funny purple cowboy hat.

Iris noticed that Vivi looked terrified as she looked on at the woman. Did that mean that the strange woman on their ship was a threat? Iris quickly found out that the woman went by the name of Ms. All Sunday, and that she was the top agent other than the boss in Baroque Works. It was also figured out that Ms. All Sunday was the one who had caused the explosion a few minutes ago that apparently Igaram, the mayor of Whiskey Peak, had got caught up in.

Ms. All Sunday definitely had a strange presence about her. Iris felt that she would be no match against this woman, and that upset her. It wasn't so much that she thought this woman was stronger than her as Iris definitely thought she was physically stronger than the woman. She couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was that made her feel uneasy about the woman. Iris now knew was that she was going to have to become much stronger to keep up with the Grand Line.

When Ms. All Sunday was asked what she was doing on the boat she gave a very noncommittal answer. Iris was surprised when Usopp and Sanji suddenly appeared next to the woman with Usopp holding his slingshot and Sanji holding a gun. Iris was quite shocked that Sanji was holding a gun to a woman's head, and it gave her a little hope that perhaps he could treat her differently after all. Not that she wanted him pointing a gun at her head, but it was still a good sign she thought.

Sanji and Usopp were pushed over the railing that Ms. All Sunday was sitting on, but from what Iris could see Ms. All Sunday hadn't pushed them. Did that mean she had a devil fruit ability? What kind of ability was it?

Sanji's new reaction to Ms. All Sunday as he looked up at her from the deck they were all on was more what she had expected originally. He started going gaga over her looks, and Iris lost the hope she had had a moment ago.

Ms. All Sunday went on to explain that she was not there to get into a fight with any of them, and tried to persuade them out of waging war against Baroque Works. She thought it was quite stupid for a bunch of newbie pirates to try and take on an entire organization, and quite frankly she was right. Iris had not wanted to get involved in the matter, but she was. If Luffy had agreed to help the princess fight against Crocodile then she would follow him into battle. She had decided to follow Luffy the moment she set sail with him, and would continue to do so even if she had reservations about what they were getting into.

The woman continued talking and explained that the next island they would come to was called Little Garden and that they probably wouldn't make it past that island. She threw down something that looked somewhat like a log pose and Vivi caught it. Vivi called it an eternal pose and it was supposedly pointed straight to Alabasta.

"What's an eternal pose?" Iris asked, and Nami shushed her while saying she'd explain later. Iris didn't like being shushed and felt her temper rising, but tried to control it. She knew she shouldn't lose it while there was an enemy on board.

"It's like a log pose, but only ever points to one island," Vivi said, but she never took her attention off of Ms. All Sunday. It seemed awfully convenient that this woman would give them the easy way to get where they were going. It had to be a trap or have some sort of catch to it.

Luffy then reached out and grabbed the eternal pose and crushed it in his hand. That infuriated Nami who then proceeded to kick Luffy in the head shouting about how stupid he was for breaking something that gave them the easiest route to Alabasta. Iris was somewhat surprised that Nami wasn't considering that it very well could be a trap; she must be awfully stressed out to be abandoning logic like that.

"Don't you dare think for a second that you can choose the path of our journey!" Luffy shouted at Ms. All Sunday. Iris couldn't help but smile at his reason for smashing the eternal pose. He was right though; this was their journey and it wasn't going to be influenced by what others thought they should do. Luffy was ready for an adventure, and he was going to see to it that he got a great adventure.

He then went on to say how much he hated Ms. All Sunday for blowing up Igaram. Ms. All Sunday seemed amused by Luffy and even mentioned that she hoped she might run into him again before jumping off the boat onto a giant turtle and sailing away.

Vivi seemed quite upset about Ms. All Sunday showing up and vanishing so suddenly. Iris was curious about how much Vivi knew about the strange woman and would have to ask later. Luffy was shouting about wanting breakfast while Sanji was trying to get Nami to say she was jealous that he was being so gentlemanly and protective towards Vivi. It was a humorous scene considering what had just occurred over the course of the night. The only person that seemed upset was Vivi, everybody else was already moving onto other things. Luffy's carefree personality seemed to be rubbing off on all of them a bit.

Soon enough Sanji was bringing out some sort of fancy cocktail and handing them out to everybody. Nami and Vivi were up near the kitchen talking about the sea and navigating it, while the rest of them remained down on the main deck. Even the duck was drinking with them.

Luffy decided he wanted fishing rods and Usopp agreed to make them. Usopp asked if she'd like a fishing rod too, but she reminded him that she fished in a different manner than they did. She would jump into the ocean and catch the fish with her hands. He seemed to remember that she had done that and was still in awe that she was able to do it.

"Being half fishman has it's perks," she said with a grin.

"That's pretty cool... It kinda makes me wish I was a fishman too. Or at least part fishman like you. I like looking like a human," he said. His simple statement made her more happy than he could know. She had found a bunch of humans she felt free to be herself around. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would find humans that thought she was cool for being half fishman. Both Usopp and Luffy had now mentioned thinking something about her being a fishman was cool.

She felt at home among these humans. Particularly with Zoro, Luffy, and Usopp. She was letting her guard down around Nami too though, even if Nami did take advantage of the fact that Iris was easy to set off. She did hope she would start to form some kind of relationship with Sanji too, even if it was hard for her to admit she hope for that.

"Umm... I'm sorry for what I said about fishmen earlier..." Vivi said from behind her. Iris looked to the girl and saw that she genuinely looked sorry. "I really don't think they're all monsters. I shouldn't have said that... But I was trying to keep the persona I had created in tact... I'm really sorry. I know you can't judge an entire species from stereotypes... I-" she continued but Iris cut her off.

"Please stop. I feel weird having a princess apologize to me and go on like that. But thanks, I appreciate the apology," Iris said.

"Do you hate me for it?" Vivi asked.

"Nah. You seem genuinely sorry. Don't worry about it," Iris said. She really hadn't expected the girl to apologize. She was a completely different person than the Ms. Wednesday she had seen just a little bit ago. And she definitely wasn't what Iris thought a princess would be. She had thought a princess would be a spoiled rotten brat that expected everybody around her to cater to her every desire. She was holding out on making a decision on her thoughts on the girl. She'd have to see what the girl was like when she wasn't so shook up.

"Okay... Uh... Well thank you for being so understanding," Vivi said.

"Don't mention it. Seriously. Bring it up again and I won't be so understanding," Iris said and Vivi looked at her with great concern. Iris tried to smile at the girl to lighten her mood, and when Vivi smiled back at her in an uneasy manner Iris couldn't help but laugh. "Lighten up, princess," Iris said and then asked Sanji for another drink.

As Sanji was on his way to get another drink he became distracted by a dolphin jumping out of the water coming towards their boat. They all went to look at the dolphin, and as it got closer they could see it wasn't a normal dolphin; it was a giant dolphin. A giant dolphin with giant sharp teeth.

"Let's get out of here quick!" Luffy shouted and they all responded quickly by finding posts on the boat to make it sail faster.


	16. Chapter 16

After successfully getting away from the giant dolphin sailing seemed to go fairly smoothly. Iris learned that while strange weather could occur anywhere in the Grand Line, it shouldn't be like it was in the stretch between the entrance to the Grand Line and the first island. That was good news; Iris had no desire to deal with such strange weather patterns on a constant basis; that had been stressful.

Since it seemed that things had quieted down a bit Iris decided she would start training. She needed to be stronger, and now was a good time for her to train since Usopp was busy making fishing rods and wouldn't ask for her to start training him. She walked to the back of the boat where nobody else was and started stretching, and when her body was warmed up and loose she started trying to test her left arm to see how much it had healed.

The mobility in her arm was definitely getting better, and it seemed like the pain was somewhat less severe as she moved her arm about. She got down into a planking position and felt a sharp electric pain shoot through her arm as she put pressure on her left arm, but her arm wasn't collapsing like the last time she had tried to put weight on it. That was a good sign. She tried to then do a push up, but that was apparently too much for her still healing arm. Between the weight on it and the movement her arm gave in.

She continued training for awhile longer, and then noticed Vivi watching her train. The princess seemed embarrassed to have been caught watching Iris and started to walk away, but Iris called her over instead. Her first inclination was to dislike the princess and to dismiss her, but if they were going to be traveling together for who knows how long then that probably wasn't a wise thing to do.

She had learned in the past few weeks that she would have to learn to interact with humans better than she wanted to. The girl had already apologized for the rude things she had said about fishmen, and so perhaps she wasn't all bad.

"Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself, princess," Iris said.

"Please call me Vivi..." the princess said politely.

"Sure, whatever," Iris responded as she leaned against the railing on the side of the boat. She took her hair out of the bun it was tied in and let the wind blow through her hair as Vivi came and stood next to her.

Vivi still seemed uneasy around Iris, and Iris couldn't say she disliked that. She had always been proud of the fact that she intimidated other people, though she wasn't sure why she was proud of that. It wasn't necessarily a good trait to give off a negative vibe like she did, but at the same time it had helped keep interaction with humans to a minimum. It probably boiled down to the fact that Iris wanted to appear tough, and if others were intimidated by her that she was obviously doing a good job of that.

Vivi seemed a bit stiff as she started talking, but then loosened up as she started talking about her home country. Iris wasn't super thrilled to find out that Alabasta was a desert county. Deserts didn't have much water, and the thought of going to such a place was rather off putting to Iris. Being half fishman Iris preferred places that had plenty of water to either be able to swim in or to use as a weapon as she fought. Hopefully they wouldn't have to spend too much time in a dry, arid desert.

As Iris listened to Vivi talk she realized that this girl had been through a lot for only being 16. She had infiltrated Baroque Works with Igaram at the age of 14 to try and figure out what was going on in her country and how to stop it. She had been living through civil war and was currently trying to stop it. Iris had to admit that it was quite impressive how brave this girl was. Vivi might not be overly strong physically, but her mental strength had to be enormous.

Quite frankly, Iris wished that she had had that kind of strength when she was younger. Iris had completely shut down when her father was arrested after her initial outburst of anger, when really she should have sprung into action like Vivi did. It made Iris feel pathetic thinking about how she handled her situation versus how Vivi was handling the situation she was in. Iris' problems now seemed so small when compared to having the weight of saving an entire country that was currently on Vivi's shoulders. It was embarrassing to say the least.

"I'm sorry for getting you all involved in this dangerous situation..." Vivi said.

"Don't worry about it. It's pretty obvious that Luffy has made up his mind to help you. We'll all go along with what he says. Besides, we were bound to run into danger along the way to reaching our goals anyway," Iris responded.

Vivi looked at her with a grateful smile, but Iris could still see doubt in her eyes. Vivi was ready to shoulder the weight of all that was going on by herself, but at some point her small frame would be crushed under the pressure. She needed to learn to accept help, though Iris could understand not wanting to do so. Iris had never been good at accepting help from others either.

Iris not wanting to accept help came from a totally different place than Vivi. Vivi didn't want to get others caught up in dangers where they could get hurt, while Iris had never wanted to accept help because she didn't want to appear weak and in need of assistance from others. Neither of them were correct in their way of thinking though. Accepting help from others was a skill that was necessary to learn.

"We're a strong group, ya know. We won't be defeated easily, not even against as Warlord. You really should stop worrying about us," Iris said trying to reassure the girl. Iris then excused herself from the conversation and to go see what the others were doing. Sanji was in the kitchen working on lunch, Nami was admiring her tangerine trees, and the three other boys were in a competition trying to see who could catch the most fish.

"I bet I can catch more fish than all three of you combined," she said as she walked up to where they were.

"Of course you can... You can go swim up to the fish instead of waiting for them to get hooked on the rod!" Usopp said.

"Yeah right! I can beat you just like I'm going to beat these two!" Luffy shouted.

"You think so?" she asked him and he nodded with a big grin. "Your enthusiasm is cute. Don't cry too hard when I kick your butt," she said as she kicked off her shoes. She tossed down a rope so she'd be able to climb back on board easily and dove down into the water.

The water hit her skin and she took in a deep breath of the salty water. She hadn't been able spend as much time in the ocean as she generally preferred since leaving Orange Town, and so it was particularly refreshing to be swimming out in the cool ocean water. She could feel tension being released from her body as she swam and all the stress in her body started to melt away. This was exactly what she needed after a long night.

She saw a school of fish about 50 meters beneath her and swiftly swam down next to them. The fish weren't overly concerned about her presence and so she was easily able catch a few. She swam back up to the surface and tossed up the fish onto the boat. Luffy started shouting something about how he wasn't going to lose. She didn't wait for him to finish talking and dove back into the sea.

There were different types of fish here than she had seen before. She knew that would be the case since she had heard that there were different kinds of fish even in the East Blue than the stuff around her home island, but having that knowledge didn't make in any less interesting to see.

The fish in the Grand Line were, however, reacting to her about the same as the fish in the East Blue. They didn't seem to notice her presence as being different than any other fish, and that comforted her. She was glad that even in a sea where there were so many full blooded fishmen and merfolk that a half fishmen such as herself was still seen as a sea creature by the marine life. She had been somewhat concerned that the fish in the Grand Line would see her as a human rather than a fishman.

After she had made a few trips back and forth she decided to call it quits after catching 20-some fish and climbed up the rope to find Usopp and Luffy still trying to catch fish while Zoro slept peacefully. She couldn't say she was surprised to see he had stopped fishing in favor of catch some sleep.

"All right boys... How did you guys do?" she asked them.

"I caught two," Usopp answered.

"Three," Luffy said.

"Looks like I win then," she said as she pointed to the pile of fish on the deck. Luffy started pouting while Usopp claimed he wasn't surprised and knew she'd win. Luffy started complaining about her cheating she couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Don't be such a sore loser, Luffy. You getting into a competition with me where water is involved is like me getting into a stretching competition with you," she said. He was about to continue his whining, but became distracted when Sanji popped his head out of the kitchen and shouted that lunch was ready. They all made their way to the kitchen with exception of Zoro who was sleeping.

The rest of the day went by smoothly as they sailed towards Little Garden. She gave Usopp a few beginner exercises to practice that he didn't seem too enthusiastic about, and so she demonstrated to him how the exercises could turn into useful moves. She also reminded him that he had agreed to abide by her rules, and so he would do as she instructed.

"I just want to learn how to fight..." he grumbled as he continued doing the exercises.

"You have to crawl before you can walk, Usopp. Stop whining like a little brat," she said and sat down. She leaned against the side of the boat and started unwrapping the bandages on her arm. At this point she didn't think she needed them any longer, and the bruising was faded enough that it wasn't noticeable unless someone was looking for it.

Removing the bandages also revealed the scarring that had formed on her shoulder from Arlong's teeth. Most would probably think she had been bit by a shark and not a fishman, but that was fine too. She thought a scar like that made her look tough.

She watched Usopp move through the exercises until she heard somebody shouting about seeing an island. She stood back up and walked towards bow of the boat and could see an island that was overgrown with large trees. Nami confirmed that this was the island that they were headed towards and they sailed up to the island. It sure hadn't taken them long to reach their destination.

The boat sailed up towards the island it was apparent that the name of Little Garden wasn't fitting of this island at all. There was nothing little about it, and it looked more like an overgrown mess than a garden. An animal screeched from above them and Nami screamed out in fear. Sanji tried to comfort the frightened Nami, and Iris looked for whatever had made that noise. She finally spotted what looked like a lizard flying through the sky and her eyes widened. A flying lizard? Like a dinosaur? Or perhaps a dragon? Whatever the case was she was excited. There were probably all sorts of new things on this island for her to see.

Then they spotted a tiger, and it collapsed covered in blood. None of this seemed to be making Nami feel any better, not that Iris was surprised, but it was making Luffy all the more excited about going on an adventure. Both Nami and Usopp thought they should all wait on the boat until the log was finished recording, but that wasn't going to happen. Luffy was already way too excited and asking Sanji to prepare a pirate lunch box for him.

"We already ate lunch... Why do you need more?" Sanji asked him.

"I'm still hungry," Luffy responded. Sanji sighed but went to the kitchen to prepare food for Luffy. Vivi surprised Iris by asking Luffy if she could go along with him as he explored the island. Iris had figured the princess would stay behind with Nami and Usopp.

Iris was planning on exploring the island too. It was seemingly uninhabited, and that excited her. In fact the lack of human presence made her happy; she wouldn't have to worry about running into humans who would judge her or discriminate against her.

She was still convinced that most humans would hate her for being half fishman even though she had now encountered multiple humans who didn't care. Though, at the same time she also had now met some fishmen that didn't like her because she was half human. The makings of an identity crisis were starting to roll around in her brain, but she kept trying to push the thoughts out of her mind. She didn't want to deal with those thoughts.

The boat then docked, and Luffy and Vivi were on their way to explore the island. Zoro announced that he was going to go for a walk and she said she'd go with him. Nami seemed upset to see them leaving, but they should be fine if Sanji was staying behind with them. Even if Iris didn't care for Sanji she couldn't deny that he was a strong individual.

As the two started walking off Sanji called out for them to see if they could find any food while they were out. Zoro, of course, couldn't help but making a snide comment about how he would catch something way bigger and better than anything Sanji would be able to catch. That started a competition between the two and Sanji jumped off the boat to go find something bigger and better than Zoro would be able to.

"Why don't you come with me instead, Iris?" Sanji asked.

"No thanks," she replied.

"W-W-Why don't you stay here with us on the b-b-boat?" Usopp cried out. It did seem a little unfair to leave the two weak members of the crew behind by themselves, but at the same time they could come explore with them if they were that concerned.

"Sorry kid, but I'm gonna pass on that," she responded.

She followed after Zoro who was already storming off the find some sort of big game to bring back to the ship. She looked around at the gigantic trees around them and the overgrown foliage. She must be getting desensitized to the strangeness of the Grand Line because this wasn't quite so surprising as it probably should have been. This environment looked ancient, but in comparison to Laboon or riding a stream up a mountain this was nothing.

As they walked she made sure to pay attention to their surroundings and find landmarks she could use to get them back to the ship. She knew she couldn't count on Zoro to get them back to the ship; she would have to be in charge of navigating the jungle. Hopefully she'd be able to get them back well enough. She had never really had to worry about this kind of stuff before since the island she had grown up on was easy to navigate.

"Uhh... I should probably say I'm sorry for how I acted last night," Zoro said suddenly. He seemed somewhat embarrassed, and she could feel her heart sinking in her chest. She had had a feeling that his affectionate behavior last night had been too good to be true, but such a big part of her had wanted to believe he was genuinely being affectionate. She had a feeling this conversation wasn't going to be one she enjoyed.

"Why?" she finally asked after trying to think of something to respond with. A million different responses to his apology were running through her mind, but none of them seemed right. So instead she decided to try and get some more information out of him. Why was he embarrassed? Why was he sorry?

"I... Uh... I let the alcohol get the better of me last night. I mean, it wasn't enough to impair my senses or anything, but it was apparently enough that I let myself get carried away," he said with his face turning slightly red.

"Oh... Well, I didn't really mind. Had I minded you would have known. I would have hit your or something," she responded.

They continued walking in silence for awhile when he didn't respond to her. She knew that by admitting she didn't mind his actions that she was opening a can of worms that could easily explode in her face, but she needed to know how he felt. She was going to ignore the fear of rejection for a moment and try and get more information out of him.

"So... Why did you grab onto me in the first place? And don't just blame the alcohol. That's a lame excuse," she said.

"I don't really want to talk about it right now..." he grumbled.

"That's not fair to me. I think I deserve an answer," she said. Her hopes were continually being dashed by his words, and she was trying not to let it show. If she let it show how upset she was feeling he'd probably clam up even more. Part of her wished that she could go back in time and stay back on the ship with Usopp and Nami, but the other part of her still needed to know what he was thinking.

The problem was now that her feelings towards him wouldn't change by knowing that he didn't feel the same way back towards her. All that would end up happening would be her being hurt while still caring for him, and there was a big part of her was thinking that she'd rather not know. She knew though that if she walked away from the conversation she'd regret it later, and then things would get awkward.

There was also the fact that she had spent the last four years of her life not letting herself feel too many emotions other than anger. A big part of that was because she was afraid of letting more pleasant feelings in and then said feelings being crushed. She had tried to not care about others, and it was for this reason in particular. Getting close to others only led to being hurt.

She had always put up walls so high around herself that she hadn't dared lower until she met Luffy and Zoro. Perhaps if she hadn't have lowered her guards with them, Zoro in particular, she wouldn't be in the predicament. There wasn't anything she could do about that now; what was done was done and now she'd have to live with the consequences.

"I suppose so... I mean..." he finally grumbled after the long silence. "Do I really have to explain why I would grab onto a female and slap her ass? I feel like the answer to that should be obvious!" he stated as his face went a deep shade of red.

Did that mean he was admitting that he was attracted to her too? She felt her heart start to race, and felt her face turn warm as she realized what he was trying to say. This was what she was hoping for!

"But I shouldn't have let myself act like I did..." he continued.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because I have a goal I have to reach right now. I don't have time to get distracted by anything... And that includes women. I can't let anything distract me from becoming the world's greatest swordsman!" he blurted out, and once again she felt her heart sink in her chest.

Basically she was hearing that he was attracted to her, at least enough to slap her butt, but not enough to want anything else. She could feel sadness starting to cloud her mind and her heart, but she didn't want to show that to him and so it came out in anger instead.

"I'm sorry I'm such a distraction! You're not the only one that has a goal to reach, ya know?!" she snapped.

"Don't get angry when you're the one who asked!" he snapped back.

"Whatever... I think I'm gonna go back and make sure Usopp and Nami are alright," she said and turned to walk away. She needed to get away from him before she got any more worked up. He had a right to his feelings and thoughts, and he was probably correct that she shouldn't be angry since she was asking him for answers. That still didn't change the fact that she was angry though.

"Would you stop? Don't walk away from me when we're in the middle of a conversation!" he said and grabbed onto her wrist as she started to walk off.

"Did you have more to say to me then?" she asked without turning to face him. She was trying to stop tears of frustration from falling down her face, and she didn't want him to see her like that. He had no idea how emotionally invested in him she was, and quite honestly she hadn't realized the full extent of it until now. She was teetering between anger and sadness, and didn't want the scales to be tipped towards sadness.

She knew she had become attached to him, but it was obviously a stronger attachment than she had known. If she hadn't been quite so attached she wouldn't be getting so frustrated and this wouldn't hurt so bad. She had known that him not returning her feelings would hurt, but she had no idea just how much it would hurt. The pain of her hopes and feelings all crashing down to the ground and being trampled over was more intense that she could have imagined.

"This is why I shouldn't have done what I did last night! Now you're angry, and things will be weird... I didn't want that! Why don't you just get it over with and tell me what a big jerk I am!" Zoro shouted at her.

Iris took a deep breath trying to calm herself. She didn't want to shout back at him, but she was tempted to tell him exactly what a big jerk he was for getting her hopes up. She knew if she did that she'd start crying, and she didn't want that so she resisted the urge to tell him off. She didn't want to do anything to make this situation any worse, and so she would have to try and dissipate it instead.

"I don't want things to be weird between us either... I value the friendship we have, and I don't want to lose that," she finally responded. She turned to look back at him when she was sure she wouldn't cry, and saw the muscles in his face relax slightly. He looked both concerned and frustrated, but he didn't look as angry as his voice sounded. It took all of her strength not to start crying when their eyes met and she knew he was serious about not wanting her to be in the way of his goal.

"Thanks... I appreciate it," he said in a softer tone. He didn't seem to realize that there was a storm raging inside of her that she was having to subdue, but he did seem to understand that she didn't want things to be weird between them any more than he did. If things got weird between them the others in the crew would surely notice, and she didn't want to have to explain that weirdness to anybody. It would be easier to act as though last night hadn't happened.

They continued on their way through the jungle looking for something edible to bring back to the ship. Neither of them seemed to be in a very talkative mood any longer. She glanced over to him and could tell that he was thinking about something, and she wondered if he was thinking about her. It seemed highly probable that he was thinking about her, and she wished she could know exactly what he was thinking about.

The silence between them was finally broken when he asked if she had found out anything about where her father was. She told him about how she had infiltrated the naval base back in Loguetown and found the name of the prison he had been taken to. She didn't know much else, but at least it was a start. He seemed to agree that it was at least a step towards finding her dad.

He then asked what she would do after finding and rescuing her dad. Would she continue sailing with them, or would she go back to living a normal life with her dad? She hadn't thought a whole lot about that, but she had a feeling it wouldn't be easy to live a normal life any longer. She had a bounty on her head, and would always have to worry about somebody coming after her like they had her dad. There was also the fact that if she was able to successfully break him out of prison that the navy would be seeking him too.

She finally answered him by telling that she'd have to decide when it happened. There was no point in thinking things over too much right now, especially since she didn't know when she'd be able to rescue him or what the circumstances surrounding it would be when it did happen.

Zoro suddenly stopped walking and Iris almost ran into him. She was about to ask why he had stopped, but then noticed the gigantic lizard-like creature in front of them. She rubbed her eyes for a moment to make sure that she was actually seeing what she thought she was seeing, and sure enough the lizard was still in front of them.

The creature looked like a dinosaur she had seen in textbooks when she was a child. Dinosaurs were supposed to be extinct though, and so this didn't make sense. This was a stranger thing for her than even Laboon or sailing up a mountain stream. She would never have guessed that she would be able to meet a real live dinosaur.

"What do you think it is? Do you think it's edible?" Zoro asked.

"I think it's a dinosaur... And I have no idea if it's edible..." she asked as she cautiously reached out her hand to touch the animal. It didn't look like an overly vicious dinosaur, and she assumed from the leaves hanging out of its mouth that it was an herbivore.

The dinosaur didn't seem to mind that she was touching it and continued to eat. If this dinosaur was here that probably meant there were other dinosaurs on the island too. She wondered if Luffy had run into any dinosaurs yet; he seemed like somebody who would thoroughly enjoy getting to see a dinosaur.

"Don't be making friends with the food," Zoro said.

"Why not? It's not everyday you get to see a dinosaur," she replied and stepped away from the animal. Zoro pulled out his swords and effortlessly killed the dinosaur. He grabbed onto the creature and started dragging back to the ship as she led the way back.

As they were walking she could see a figure leaning up against the tree and started moving in the direction of the figure. As she got close she could see that the figure looked like Nami and she became concerned. She really didn't think that Nami would leave the boat by herself and be wandering through the jungle; especially since the island was seemingly uninhabited and it didn't seem there would be treasure for her to hunt after. Zoro noticed Nami too and they started walking towards her.

"Is everything okay?" Iris called out, and when Nami didn't respond Iris knew something was wrong. As she got close she could see that this thing wasn't actually Nami, but some sort of figurine that looked almost identical to the real Nami. Zoro hadn't picked up on that this wasn't the real Nami and was growing upset with her for not responding to him.

"Come on, Zoro, let's go," she said as she grabbed onto his arm to pull him away. Before she was able to turn back towards where the ship should be she felt something around her ankles. She looked down to see a white substance had enclosed around her ankles, and when she tried to move her feet to get it off of her she wasn't able to. Whatever was around her ankles was hard as a rock, and it was heavy.

She looked around to see who had put this substance on her and saw a strange looking man with his hair fastened into a number 3 on top of his head. The man laughed as he walked up to them and informed her that it was pointless to struggle as his wax was unbreakable.

Wax? Did that mean this man was a devil fruit eater like Luffy? She looked to her side to see that Zoro had been caught too, and then glared at the man. The man introduced himself as Mr. 3 and part of Baroque Works. Of course he was part of that stupid organization. She would have to think quickly to get them out of this situation.

"I wasn't specifically instructed to catch you... But since you were here with the swordsman you got caught up in this too. What bad luck!" Mr. 3 said with a laugh.

They were after Zoro and not her? Why would they only be after part of the crew? She was curious about why that would be, but it probably wasn't important at the moment. Right now she needed to prioritize how to get them out of this situation. If the thing cuffing her ankles together was wax she would need to find a heat source to melt it.

She glanced back to Zoro to see that both his ankles and his wrists were cuffed together with the wax. Her arms were still free and so she would have to be the one to think of a way out of this. She looked around to see what in her surroundings could help her, and found a puddle a few feet away. If the man wasn't after her then perhaps he also didn't know she was a fishman and wouldn't try and keep her away from the water.

"Wax, huh? What a lame ability," she said as she let herself fall down onto her butt. If she could distract him enough then perhaps she'd be able to scoot over to the puddle without drawing suspicion from him.

"Lame?! My ability is wonderful I'll have you know! It's is the epitome of art!" he said defensively.

"Art? There's nothing artistic about this crap," she said as she tried to scoot towards the puddle slowly.

"What would you know about art? You're just an unsophisticated pirate. Your opinion doesn't count!" he snapped.

"If my opinion doesn't count then why are you so worked up about it?" she asked with a smirk. She glanced over to Zoro and saw him struggling to get out of the restraints, and then turned her attention back to Mr. 3.

She had finally scooted herself back into the puddle and stuck her hands into the muddy water. Mr. 3 made some snide comment about her literally being an undignified, and dirty pirate as she played in the muddy water, and then proceeded to laugh at himself. She grinned as she pulled her hands out of the water and immediately flung the water at him.

He screamed out as the water hit his skin like bullets and tried to dodge the water as she continued to throw it at him. He was backing up further and further from her when suddenly she felt her body go limp and her eyes shut. She knew she couldn't fall asleep, but she wasn't able to keep herself awake either. This was a bad situation. Her body collapsed under her and she passed out.

The next thing she knew she was waking up and being drug through the jungle. Her hands were now restrained with the wax and a child was pulling her through the jungle by the restraint.

She looked around and saw that the man was dragging Zoro who was struggling as well as he could with the wax restraints, but the man wasn't letting go. She was curious where the child had come from as she hadn't seen the girl during the initial encounter with Mr. 3.

"Where are you taking us?" Iris demanded, but nobody answered her. When the two people stopped walking they dropped both Zoro and her and left. She could hear some sort of commotion going on in the jungle ahead of them, but she wasn't close enough to hear what was going on. She was frustrated at herself for being unable to do anything in this situation.

She got up onto her knees and started beating the wax around her wrists into the ground. Pain shot through her left arm and shoulder as the wax impacted the ground, but that wasn't going to stop her. She had to figure out a way to get out of this. Was there any heat source around that would help them? Some sort of natural hot spring? Or even a volcano close enough that that heat emitting from the mountain could melt the wax? There had to be some way out of this.

"You're not going to be able to break it," Zoro said in a much calmer tone than she would have expected. They had been caught by Baroque Works, and he had stopped trying to get away. Had he given up? She couldn't imagine that he would give up so easily.

"That won't stop me from trying," she said and continued trashing her arms about.

"You're going to re-injure your arm if you don't stop," he said.

"I don't care! I'm not getting caught by these idiots here!" she shouted. She wasn't sure why he was so calm in the situation, but it was annoying her. He was so set on his goal of becoming the world's greatest swordsman that he didn't want any distractions in the way, but not set enough on his goal to not give up when things got tough? She felt like hitting him with the wax restraint over the head to knock some sense into him.

She then got a great idea. Smashing the wax into the ground wasn't working, but perhaps smashing the wax against itself would break it? Zoro's hands were restrained behind his back and so he wouldn't be able to do anything, but since hers were restrained on the front side of her body she had more mobility. She crawled over to where he was so she could try and free her hands and his at the same time.

"What are you doing?!" he shouted out as she raised her arms above her head and over his back. She slammed the wax down onto the wax restraining his arms and watched as the wax started to crack. He complained about it hurting and she ignored him. She raised her arms up again and slammed down the wax once more and watched as it broke into pieces.

"See... I was able to break it," she gloated. "You shouldn't give up so quickly," she continued.

"What?! I hadn't given up! I was trying to figure out the best plan," he responded as he sat up. They both still had wax around their ankles, but they should be able to deal with that. She was glad to be able to move her hands around once more.

"Can you cut through this with your swords now that your hands are free?" she asked him. He pulled out a sword and swung it down at the wax between his ankles, but it wasn't working. The swords must either not be hard enough or sharp enough to break the wax.

She should have gone with her first instinct and tried to break the wax from her ankles rather than his arms. She had dismissed that thought as selfish though; even if he had dashed her hopes of having any sort of relationship beyond friendship she still couldn't help but hope things could change. Even if he had angered her by calling her a distraction, she still cared for him and had his well being in mind.

And now because of her stupid feelings towards him she was stuck in a situation where she wasn't sure what the next move was. Had she freed her own feet rather than his arms she would be able to pick him up and get the both of them away. She could try bashing the wax around her ankles with his, but the leverage wouldn't be as great. The best solution would be to find a heat source to melt the wax.

"Let's get out of here," she said and started crawling off. Since she had been passed out for a bit she had lost track of where they were, but perhaps she'd be able to find her way back to the ship anyway.

As they crawled away she asked if anything had happened before she passed out, and Zoro informed her that the child had done something to her but he wasn't sure what. She hadn't felt anybody knock her over the head or anything like that, so did that mean the girl was also a devil fruit ability holder?

They hadn't gotten too far off when Iris heard a scream. She realized that it was Nami's scream and debated momentarily whether to help or not. She knew it wouldn't be right of her to leave Nami alone if she was in trouble, but at the same time she didn't know exactly what she'd be able to do to help since she couldn't even walk right now.

She sighed as she came to realization she had to at least try and help. If she didn't she'd never be able to forgive herself if something happened to Nami. She started trying to make her way towards where she had heard Nami's scream when her path was blocked. She looked up to see who was blocking her path and saw the two people from Baroque Works they had seen at Whiskey Peak standing in front of her.

"Just where a pathetic individual such as yourself belongs... On the ground," the yellow haired woman said and sat on Iris. The woman's weight suddenly started increasing and Iris bit down on her tongue trying not to scream out from the pain as her body was forced into the ground. Iris had heard that both of these people were devil fruit eaters, but she had no idea what their abilities were. This one could manipulate her weight? The weight was gradually getting heavier, and heavier and the more Iris tried to struggle the more she wasn't able to do anything.

"Get off of her!" she heard Zoro shout, and the man with the yellow haired woman got in between her and Zoro. Then man suddenly kicked Zoro in the face and there was an explosion.

Iris felt something snap inside of her at that moment. She suddenly had a renewed sense of strength as her blood boiled hotter than it had in years. The last time she could recall being so angry was when her dad had been taken away. She wasn't going to watch silently and have somebody else she cared about taken away.

She managed to get back up onto her hands and knees and throw the yellow haired woman off of her. She could feel her anger taking over every fiber of her being as she got to her feet and jumped onto the man who had just kicked Zoro's face. The man fell to the ground face first and she sat on his back pinning him down. She grabbed onto his hair and pulled his head backwards, and then started slamming his face down into the ground as she held his hands down against the ground with her other hand.

She was now no longer in conscious control of her body. Hatred and anger had taken control and had pushed out any other emotion or reason. She could hear the yellow haired woman talking from behind her, but what the woman was saying was unimportant. If the yellow haired woman tried to attack her, then Iris would take her out as well.

Then out of nowhere Iris was tired. An overwhelming sense of calmness was taking over her, just like it had before, and she could feel her body going limp again. She tried to fight it and looked to see the child from earlier behind her holding a paint brush.

Once again her body started to collapse and she fell asleep.


	17. Chapter 17

The next thing Iris knew she was waking back up to see that she had been recaptured by the annoying Mr. 3 along with Zoro, Nami, and Vivi. This time her hands were restrained behind her back so that she couldn't move around so freely. In front of them Mr. 3 was working on some sort of wax creation, and this one was huge. She had a bad feeling about that thing.

"How did you two get caught?! You should be rescuing us instead of being caught!" Nami hissed at Iris when she noticed Iris was awake.

"I just wanted to know what you weaklings felt like. You know, needing to be rescued all the time and what not," Iris replied cattily.

"If my hands weren't restrained I'd hit you!" Nami yelled.

"That would be stupid of you. I hit back, and I hit a whole hell of a lot harder than you do," Iris said.

"Why are you two fighting? We need to think of a way out of this! And aren't you guys supposed to be friends?" Vivi asked them frantically.

"We are, kind of," Iris said.

"We're better friends than we used to be," Nami said.

Vivi looked at them with a confused expression. Iris didn't feel like explaining further at the moment; it wasn't a short story to explain Nami's and her relationship. Things definitely were better between her and Nami though, and she was glad for that. They still got on each other's nerves, but it was in a different way than it had been at first. Nami purposefully would poke Iris' buttons, but Iris was no longer annoyed simply by Nami's presence. Nami didn't seem to take Iris' snide comments personally anymore either. Their relationship was definitely still a work in progress, but it was closer to a friendship than it had been before going against Arlong.

Iris looked around to see where they were and noticed a giant lying on the ground in front of them covered by Mr. 3's was. The giant was, well, gigantic. She had heard of giants, but she hadn't figured they'd be so enormously huge. Was the giant also on Baroque Works' hit list or did he get involved accidentally? She didn't think she'd want to face something so large.

She found out that Nami and Usopp had met the giant in front of them. Apparently the giant had seen them when they were still on the Going Merry and had taken them back to where he lived to share in the dinosaur meat that he had. Usopp had gone from total fear of the giant to awe of the giant fairly quickly, and that was surprising to her. She didn't figure his fear could be mitigated so quickly.

The next thing she knew the yellow haired woman was dragging her by the wax restraint around her wrists towards the giant wax figure. It looked somewhat like a giant birthday cake with a pillar in the middle of it to separate the tiers. The bad feelings she had about it earlier were intensifying the closer she got to it.

She didn't appreciate being drug through the dirt either, and so she struggled as the yellow haired woman dragged her. There might not be anything she could do about the wax restraints to get away, but that didn't mean she would make things easy for them either.

When she was in front of the structure she was put onto the bottom layer and her feet were sucked into the wax along with the restraint around her feet. Zoro was put to her right, with Vivi to his right, and Nami to her left. The wax around her wrists melted off, but not until after all four of the Baroque Works agents were far enough away that none of them would be able to reach them.

Mr. 3 then explained that this structure would turn them into candle dolls. The candles on the top of the structure were lit, and the top layer started spinning. As the layer spun wax would come off and float down onto their bodies and into the air so that they would be forced to breath it in.

Iris knew she couldn't die here; she still had to rescue her dad. If her dad learned that she had died while trying to save him he wouldn't ever be able to forgive himself. It wasn't an option to die before she had rescued him.

"Oh, didn't I hear that one of them was part fishman? I'm quite excited to have a fishman to add to my collection," Mr. 3 said.

"I'm going to rip you to shreds," Iris growled.

"It must be you! You don't look as disgusting as full blooded fishman. You should count yourself lucky," Mr. 3 taunted.

Iris took a deep breath as she glared at him. He was trying to get a reaction out of her, and she was doing just that. She didn't want to give into his prodding, even if what he was saying was terrible. Fishmen were not disgusting. Anybody that thought like that deserved to die a horrible, painful, and slow death.

"I'm not ready to die! Zoro! Iris! Can't you guys break out of this?" Nami then shouted with a panic in her voice.

"Nope," Zoro said.

"I wish. I'd tear that prick to pieces if I could. Say... Vivi... What happened to Luffy?" Iris asked as she leaned forward a bit to look past Zoro to the princess.

"I've already killed him," the guy with the explosive ability suddenly shouted out pridefully. His face was bloodied and swollen from her beating him. She had been so fully enraged when she beat him up that she couldn't really remember it clearly, but she had obviously done quite a number on him.

"You did? I'll believe it when I see it," Zoro snickered. She couldn't believe that this guy could beat Luffy either. He might be a devil fruit ability holder, but she didn't think he was all that strong. He seemed to rely solely on his ability and didn't have many other skills. This guy wouldn't be able to kill her, and Luffy was stronger than she was. There was no way Luffy could be dead.

"What about you Mr. Brogy? Can't you do something? I can't die now! This isn't fair!" Nami shouted. Nami's eyes were panic stricken, and her voice was getting hysterical. Iris understood being afraid and upset, but that wouldn't help anybody right now. And Iris wouldn't be able to think of a way out of the situation with somebody yelling hysterically in her ear.

Nami was looking at the giant pleadingly, but the giant didn't seem to be able to free himself from the wax that was covering his body. Mr. 3 started laughing at Nami, and explained why he thought the giant wouldn't get up. Apparently there were two giants that lived on the island and they were rivals that fought each other on a daily basis, and now Brogy had won the dual after a 100 years of fighting. Giants must have a longer life span than humans, because Iris never would have guessed that this giant could be over 100 years old. She could also see that there was in fact another giant beyond the one covered in wax lying face down.

When Brogy had won, he then cried over his fallen comrade. Mr. 3 went on about how stupid the giant had looked for crying over his fallen friend, and how stupid he was for fighting his only friend on the island in the first place. Mr. 3 also revealed that the giant was injured because of something that Baroque Works had done to the giant before the fight. Brogy winning the fight wasn't because he was better, but because the other giant was injured.

"You repulsive, pathetic little man! I'll tear you to bits once I'm free from this stupid chunk of wax!" Iris shouted before Mr. 3 could finish his belittling of the giant. Iris didn't know why the giants were fighting, but if they had been fighting for over 100 years it was impressive all the same. This imp of a man standing in front of them couldn't possibly understand what it meant to have pride and to fight on that pride.

"I knew something was wrong from the beginning of the fight!" the giant shouted.

"You did? I don't believe you. You mercilessly hit him. I watched you myself!" Mr. 3 stated.

"You can't possibly understand the pride of a warrior! If he was willing to put his life on the line and fight... Who am I to make light of his decision and destroy his pride?!" the giant shouted. His muscles bulged as he became fully enraged, and he managed to start pushing himself off the ground. The wax around the giant started breaking off, but was stopped with the guy with the explosive ability got involved.

There was a large explosion, and the giant fell back to the ground. Mr. 3 formed large daggers out of wax and slammed them into the giants hands and feet securing him back to the ground. It looked immensely painful, and Iris couldn't help but wince at the sight.

"Now I will speed up my Candle Service so that you all will become candle dolls even quicker!" Mr. 3 shouted with a laugh.

"Hey Iris... Why don't you do that thing again? It seemed to give you quite the boost," Zoro said.

"What thing?" Iris asked him as Nami complained about not being able to breath.

"When that explosion guy kicked me. Your eyes turned red, and you were able to push off the woman who can change her weight off of you," he continued.

"I don't know what I did to make that happen..." she said.

So her eyes had turned red? Like Arlong's had when Luffy really pissed him off? And like her dad's had when that human had tried to come onto her when she was a kid? She knew that when her dad's eyes had changed it was because of a pure and unadulterated rage. She couldn't think of a reason other than anger that would cause her eyes to turn red.

While it was true that in the instant she saw that man kick Zoro in the face and the explosion that went along with it made her angrier than she had been in years, but she had no idea she had snapped like that.

Unfortunately something like that wasn't something she could force to happen by willpower. That kind of power came from immense rage. While she was angry at the situation they were in currently, this was nothing compared to the anger she had felt in that moment. Her anger had been so intense that she wasn't able to fully remember the situation, and she knew that she had lost control of her actions to the rage that was taking over.

By now she could feel the wax starting to stiffen on her body. The wax on her gills was particularly uncomfortable. She started racking her brain for ideas of how to get them out of the situation, but she couldn't think of anything. She had always relied on her strength and martial arts to get her out of situations, and right now those skills were useless. She wasn't strong enough right now.

"I guess I'll have to cut off my legs," Zoro said and pulled her out of her thoughts. Nami started freaking out about what a stupid joke that was, but he wasn't joking. Iris raised an eyebrow as he held his sword ready to cut his legs and release himself from the wax. Fighting against these people would become significantly more difficult without lower legs, and there would also be the blood loss to deal with.

"Are you serious?" Iris asked him.

"Yep," he responded with a sexy, confident grin. She absolutely loved that grin of his, and it frustrated her that even in this situation and after the conversation they had just had that she still couldn't resist him. Everything about him turned her on, especially that confident and cocky grin.

"Well... I guess since I can't figure out a better solution I'm game. I can't break my dad out of jail if I'm dead," Iris said trying to focus on the situation at hand.

"What?! You can't be serious!" Nami shouted as Brogy agreed with their sentiments. Vivi also jumped in and said that she would go along with Zoro's plan. Nami thought they were all out of their minds, as did the people from Baroque Works.

Just as Zoro was about to slash his swords through his legs to get out of the wax Luffy, Usopp, and Vivi's duck burst through the jungle and onto the scene. Iris let out a sign of relief; if Luffy was here he would surely beat Mr. 3 and the others and free them from the wax. He never lost.

Iris then looked down to see that Zoro had partially cut into his legs before stopping the swords. Blood was pooling on the wax around his legs, but he didn't seem to be in too much pain somehow. He was definitely more relaxed now that Luffy had entered the scene. Even Nami had calmed down a bit. The fact that the three of them were instantly calmed by Luffy's presence spoke a lot about him. He was somebody worthy of their confidence.

Luffy was instantly distracted by Mr. 3's hair and how stupid it was, and Iris couldn't help but laugh. They way he always said exactly what was on his mind was humorous to her, and endearing in its own way.

"Luffy! You need to destroy the pole before we're turned into wax dolls!" Nami shouted.

"Oh, are you guys in trouble too?" Luffy asked them.

"We're kind of stuck," Iris responded.

"Not really... But can you get rid of this pole behind us? I can take care of the rest," Zoro said.

"We'll still be stuck, even if the pole is gone. You're not still planning on cutting off your legs now that Luffy's here, are you?" Iris asked. She could see that he was still wanting to be part of the fight and ignoring that they were stuck. There was no way she was having her legs cut off if there was a way around it. The only reason she had agreed to his plan was because it was better than dying. But if they weren't going to die she'd rather keep her legs fully intact.

"Okay. I don't know what that thing is, but I'll destroy it!" Luffy shouted.

"Me too! I'm not the same person I was earlier!" Usopp shouted.

"I'll believe that when I see it," Iris said skeptically, and Usopp glared at her. She shrugged at his expression and he continued to glare at her. He didn't like being treated like a scared little kid, but he was a scared kid. He'd have to grow up and stop acting like such a little wuss if he wanted to be treated like an adult.

Zoro then held one of his swords up and held it there. He was posing in the case that they were turned into candle dolls; he wanted to have a cool pose. Nami started shouting at him about how stupid he was, but he didn't seem to care. It didn't matter though, because Luffy was going to save them. She knew he would.

"Come on, Iris! Tell him how stupid he is!" Nami shouted.

"Why? If he'd rather strike a pose to be frozen in forever let him. It's better than looking boring," Iris responded and put her hands on her hips. She'd feel stupid to strike a pose like he was, but that didn't mean he couldn't have his little bit of fun. He seemed to be enjoying getting a reaction out of Nami more than anything.

Vivi still seemed confused at their behavior. She hadn't seen Luffy in action before, and she didn't know him. It was completely reasonable to not understand their trust in their captain. If Iris was in Vivi's spot she'd probably feel the same way; it was strange to see people's demeanor's change so rapidly from the merely by presence of one person. If Vivi ended up spending much time with them she'd come to understand their faith in him.

When Luffy made a move towards them Mr. 3 got in the way and threw wax around Luffy's ankles. Luffy seemed confused by the wax, but that was short lived. He seemed to have a good idea and Iris heard him say something about a hammer.

Iris noticed that Usopp was already hiding behind some trees. His bravery hadn't lasted long, not that it was much of a surprise. She called out to him about how his attitude had changed so quickly, but he didn't respond. He had been so offended by her calling his bluff moments ago, but now he had nothing to say to her. It made her sad that he was so scared, and she hoped that he would learn some bravery soon.

Mr. 3 threw some more wax at Luffy, but this time Luffy dodged it. He stretched his arms out and grabbed onto one of the wax daggers in the giant's hands and started winding himself around it. The giant cried out in pain as Luffy winded himself around the dagger, and Iris was glad that she wasn't in the giant's place. Having the dagger move around in his hand like that had to hurt more than words could describe.

As Luffy let his arm unwind his body started spinning around the dagger and eventually he kicked the wax into the pole and broke it in half. A new problem became apparent as the top layer fell down and landed where the pole had been. Initially Iris had thought the top layer was going to squash them all in their spots, but when it landed closer to them the wax was coming down even faster.

Iris' body was now stiff enough that she couldn't remover her hands from her hips. It was getting more and more uncomfortable to breath, and the wax was burning in her eyes. She still had faith that Luffy would save them though. He wouldn't let them die.

"Why didn't you guys run away?" Luffy asked.

"If we could run away why would we have needed you to destroy this thing?!" Iris asked.

"Why do you guys have so much faith in him? Can't you do something?" Vivi shouted in a panic.

"Nope. My arms are stuck like this now," Zoro responded.

"Now you will become candles even sooner! How stupid!" Mr. 3 cackled.

"WHAT?! Why didn't you guys tell me that?!" Luffy shouted.

"Just destroy this thing!" Nami shouted angrily, and Luffy agreed in his normal carefree manner. Iris' eyes were now burning so badly that she had to shut them. She wanted to continue watching what was going on, but if Luffy was going to save them she supposed it really didn't matter if she knew exactly how he saved them. She'd be able to hear what was going on, and that should be good enough.

She could hear banging and fighting, and then suddenly the fighting stopped and she could hear Luffy saying that he no longer wanted to save them. How could that be? There was no way he would say that; she must be hearing things.

"No, I don't want to help you," he said again.

"What the hell is going on?!" she snapped. She tried to open her eyes, but they were stuck together firmly by the wax. This situation was quickly going from bad to worse. What was wrong with him?

"It's Ms. Golden Week's power! She's manipulating him with her paint!" Vivi said.

"Is Ms. Golden Week the child?" Iris asked, and Vivi said that it was. If the child could control people with her paint the she must have been the one who made Iris fall asleep earlier. This was a bad thing with Luffy involved; he was such a simple guy that mind control would surely be easier on him than it might be on others.

Since Luffy was refusing to help them Vivi started yelling at him that she didn't want his help, and that he definitely shouldn't step out of the paint he was standing on. Apparently he was standing on some black paint, and black was the color of betrayal.

Luffy must have gotten out of the paint because she heard him shouting about helping them, but then started laughing hysterically. This was a game that Luffy would too easily lose, and there was nothing they could do about it. Did that mean that Usopp was their only hope to get Luffy out of the situation? Or perhaps Sanji. Where was Sanji anyway?

"We're as good as dead, aren't we?" Iris growled. Her words were barely audible now. The amount of wax in her lungs was making it painful and hard to breath, and her lips didn't want to move well. She was getting light headed, and it was getting harder to keep her consciousness. She wasn't going to be able to hold out much longer, and she couldn't imagine the others would either.

"At least I'm in a cool pose," Zoro managed to say. She could tell from the strain in his voice that he was barely holding on too. She was going to say something more, but it hurt too bad. This wasn't how she was supposed to die; she couldn't die before rescuing her dad! If he got wind of this he'd probably give up his will to live over the guilt that would surely take over him.

As she stood there fighting to hang onto her consciousness and trying her best to ignore the pain memories started flooding through her mind. Was this what they called having your life flash before your eyes?

The first real memories she could recall came to her mind. She remembered about being told that her mom had died, and not being able to comprehend what death meant because of her young age. She could also remember her dad coming to the island to raise her, and the tears he shed over her mother's death. He tried not to show that sadness in front of her, but she saw and she heard his cries.

Her next memories were of her dad teaching her martial arts. She had loved spending time with him, and she loved learning martial arts. He had tried to explain to her that martial arts were to be used as self defense, but she never paid much attention to that detail. She had always had a temper, and beat up travelers and pirates that came through the town that made awful comments about her dad.

She also recalled her dad teaching her how to swim. One would think that being half fishman and being able to breath in the water that she would automatically know how to swim, but she didn't. In fact, it was probably harder to teach her to swim than a normal human child because she didn't need to swim. She could walk along the ocean floor and explore while never needing to lift her feet off the ground. Her dad would grow impatient with her lack of desire to swim, but eventually she did learn when she realized how much quicker she could move in the water when swimming rather than walking.

She then remembered the one time she saw her dad snap. It was when an older guy tried to grab onto her and made sexual comments about her body. Her dad had beat the crap out of the man, and it was the only time she could remember her dad making a negative comment about humans. It had been shocking to see her gentle, and kind dad loose his cool. For the first time she could see him being a fearsome pirate with a bounty on his head.

The next memory was of the day that her life fell apart; the day her dad was arrested by the navy. She could still hear the old man chief explaining to her what had happened while she was asleep, and she could still feel the immense pain throbbing in her chest. She hadn't been sure how she could go on living without him, and she wasn't sure she wanted to. Eventually she was able to find her way back by running her dad's bar. It was her pride and joy.

Then Buggy showed up. He destroyed the town and her bar. It was also the day that she left Orange Town and set sail with her new friends. Loosing her dad's bar was difficult, and she would hate Buggy forever because of that, but it hadn't been as devastating as she had thought it would be. That was thanks to Luffy asking her to join his crew. She didn't have a chance to dwell on what had just happened.

Her mind started flooding with all of the new memories that she had made recently with her new friends. Luffy's smiling face was now implanted into her brain. She had never met somebody with such an infection smile and personality before. Being around him caused her to be in a better mood. Leaving her home to join him along on his quest to become the Pirate King had made happier than she had been in a long time. He thought she was cool for being part fishman, and she would always be thankful to him for that.

The next person to come to her mind was Zoro; he had very obviously become important to her these past few weeks. The thought of dying now and not getting to see what might happen between them in the future was heartbreaking to her. His strength, his loyalty, and his determination were just a few things that she adored about him. She wasn't ready to leave his side yet. She wanted to prove to him that she was more than a distraction.

As Usopp's face went across here mind she desperately hoped that he would make it out of this alive. He was a cowardly kid, and even though he annoyed her with his lies she cared about him. She was protective of him like she would be a little brother. She didn't know how he'd make it out, but she wanted so badly to make sure he did. He was a good kid despite his flaws. She'd hadn't even gotten to teach him martial arts yet. She even enjoyed listening to his tall tales.

She had quite a few recent memories with Nami that were flooding her mind. Those memories were a wild ride. She had yet to truly become friends with Nami and she was regretful of that. There had been a lot of tension between them, and lots of strong emotions that had come to a head at Arlong Park. Things had started to get better between them though, and Iris was sad that it looked like they'd never get to truly be friends.

Strangely enough she was even sad that she wouldn't get to see Sanji any longer. She hadn't gotten along with him at all and didn't have any fond memories with him, and she wished that she had tried harder to get along with him. Apparently death makes you realize things that you should have realized beforehand. If she somehow got out of this alive she'd try to get along with him better.

As the memories and emotions flooding her mind started to cease she could feel her consciousness starting to fade even faster. Tears were streaming down her cheeks under the was. Her insides hurt like nothing she had ever felt before, and not being able to breath was causing her to panic. There was nothing she could do though; her body was frozen and wouldn't move no matter how much her brain told it to.

As everything started to shut down in her body she suddenly felt a sense of warmth. Was this how dying felt? She wasn't ready to die. Fear and panic were the only things keeping her brain going. The warmth she was feeling was getting warmer, and she realized that the wax around her body was starting to soften. What was going on? Had Luffy figured out a way to save them?

The wax was suddenly melting and she was able to move her body. She pushed her hands to her face to tear the wax from her nose and eyes, and took in a gasp of air the instant she was able to. It hurt because of all the wax in her lungs, but she was able to breath all the same.

When she opened her eyes and saw a large fire around them. The entire display that they had been set into was engulfed in flames. She pulled her feet out of the melting wax and jumped down from the display. She was coughing up liquid wax and it was hard to get a breath in, but she could recall a time in her life where she had ever felt so relieved. She was alive.

She noticed that the back of her shirt had caught fire and she threw off the shirt; thankfully she was wearing a sports bra rather than a regular bra. Her sports bra covered just about the same area as the cropped tank she was wearing.

She looked around to see a badly beaten up Usopp lying on the ground in front of her. She ran towards him still coughing up wax, and noticed the yellow haired woman up in the air above him. She must be going to drop her weight and slam into him, but that Iris wouldn't let that happen.

She got to him, picked him up, and threw him over her shoulder as she got out of the way. Iris put him back on the ground and turned to go back and deal with the stupid yellow haired bitch, but Nami had already whacked the woman with the metal pole she carried around. The woman was sent flying back towards the fire.

"Where's Luffy at?" Iris asked as she looked around.

"He went after Mr. 3," Usopp answered.

"Don't you think you could have found a safer way to save us?" Nami asked.

"How ungrateful! You should be thanking me!" Usopp shouted.

"Yeah, I guess. Thanks," Nami said. Nami's shirt must have caught on fire as well as Nami was just in her bra now. Nami was wearing a regular bra though, so she was much more exposed that Iris was. That didn't seem to bother Nami too much though.

Now that it seemed they were safe and Iris was able to think a little clearer she looked around for Zoro. She didn't spend too long looking for him though, because the explosion guy appeared and was going for Usopp. Iris watched as Usopp shot one of his hot sauce bullets at the man, and he ate it thinking it was gun powder. She supposed since he was an exploding person it might make sense that he could eat gun powder. Devil fruit eaters were strange.

When the man realized it was hot sauce he had eaten he became angry and decided to make his whole body explode and jumped onto Usopp. She was about to jump in and try and shield Usopp, but Zoro suddenly appeared with his swords covered in fire and slashed the man and got him off of Usopp.

"How the hell are you even standing?" Iris asked as she looked at Zoro's legs. He was bleed profusely where he had cut his legs, and there was no way he hadn't cut through some tendons. He had to be going off of adrenaline to still be standing.

"I'm fine," he responded.

"Uh huh..." she said not believing him. He was trying to tough, but she could see in his eyes that he was feeling it. She was still feeling uncomfortable from all of the wax that was inside of her body, and she couldn't imagine having her legs half cut off on top of that.

She thought about sitting down now that they seemed to be in the clear, but she was somewhat afraid that if she let her body rest that the wax still inside her body might start to harden again. She had coughed up quite a bit of it, but she knew that there still had to be plenty of it that could harden and cause problems.

"Oh! You guys are okay!" she heard Luffy's voice say from behind them. She looked back towards the jungle and saw him walking towards them with his usual grin on his face. She was happy to see him and smiled back.

She was then distracted when out of the corner of her eye she saw the explosive guy trying to crawl off to the jungle without them noticing. After everything these people had put them through there was no way she was letting him get away so easily. She walked towards him and put her foot on the middle of his back as he was crawling. She put her weight down on him and pushed him to the ground.

"Try and explode on me and I'll snap your neck in two with my super sharp shark teeth," she said with a smirk big enough to reveal her teeth. He turned his head to look at her and seemed to realize that she was serious when he saw her teeth. Honestly she'd have to feel driven into a corner more than he'd be capable of doing to use her teeth, but he didn't know that. For all he knew she was a super aggressive fishmen like they were always stereotyped to be.

While he didn't seem to be wanting to set her off by using his devil fruit ability, he did try to get away. He tried to push her off of him, but he wasn't strong enough to do so. Even if he didn't have slash marks down his back from Zoro this man wouldn't be strong enough to get away from her.

"Maybe I'll take you and throw you into the ocean. Or maybe I'll put you in shallow water and drop you off. Since you can't move with salt water touching you you'd have nothing to do but wait for the tide to come in and drown you," she said.

"That's awful. You really are a monster," Usopp said to her.

"What? He tried to kill you. And I can't help that I've got a slightly sadistic personality," Iris responded.

"Slightly?" Nami inserted.

"Yeah... Remind me not to get on your bad side," Usopp said.

Before Iris was able to respond to them the giant started crying. His cries were ridiculously loud, and tears bigger than cannon balls started falling down around them. Iris had to cover her ears to try and soften the blow to her eardrums. She had never heard cries so loud before. The explosive man was still struggling to get away from her, and so she sat down on him.

The man stopped stirring, and she could feel his body starting to expand. He was going to risk having his neck snapped in half? Or had he called her bluff? Perhaps he figured if he was going to die anyway that he might as well try to take her down with him. Or perhaps he figured that the crying giant had her distracted enough that she wouldn't notice.

She really didn't want to bite the guy's neck, and so instead she slammed the side of her palm into his neck right onto a pressure point to knock him out. His body stopped moving and went to put her hand back on her ear, but realized that the giant had stopped his wailing.

She turned her attention away from the explosive man and back to the giant, and saw that the other giant had sat up. The crying giant was in shock that his friend wasn't dead after all, and then started crying tears of joy that his friend was alive.

Turns out the giant had only been passed out from being hit with the weapon. The weapons they had been fighting with were over 100 years old at this point and extremely dulled. If it hadn't have been for the fact that the weapons were dulled the giant probably would have died from the impact.

The giants were happy, but now a new problem was brought up. The log for this island took a year to finish recording. They didn't have a year to wait; if they waited that long Vivi wouldn't make it to Alabasta in time. There were a couple options they could do, but none of them seemed good. They could leave the island in hopes of reaching Alabasta by sheer luck, or they could wait and hope that things didn't escalate too far in Alabasta. Neither of those seemed feasible.

Sanji then suddenly appeared out of the jungle. He was instantly distracted by Nami and Iris being in their bras, and Iris felt her face flush. She didn't know why he'd make a big deal about her being in her bra since it wasn't revealing like Nami's was.

He took off his jacket and offered it to them, and Iris told Nami she could have it. The explosive man was still passed out and so Iris got off of him. The moment she got up she could feel the wax that was still in her lungs and started coughing.

"Are you okay Iris?" Sanji asked.

"I'll be fine. I've got wax in my lungs is all," she answered.

"Wax? Why do you have wax in your lungs?" he asked.

"One of Baroque Works' cronies could turn himself into wax and tried to turn us into wax statues," she said.

Sanji then noticed the giants and was understandably shocked to see them. He wanted to know if one of them was Mr. 3. They were curious how he knew about Mr. 3 was, but didn't know about the wax powers he possessed. Turns out Sanji didn't know who Mr. 3 was, but had instead talked to Mr. 0 on a transponder snail and Mr. 0 had assumed that Sanji was Mr. 3. He had then beat up two creatures that had come after him and taken their eternal pose that pointed to Alabasta.

"Why didn't you say so earlier?!" Nami shouted as she snatched the eternal pose out of his hands. This was great news; they wouldn't have to wait for the log to record now. Iris glanced over to Vivi and saw that she looked immensely relieved. They all had known that waiting here for a year for the log to record hadn't been something they could afford to do, but at the same time it would be stupid of them to sail out to sea in hopes of reaching Alabasta without anything to help navigate.

"Should we get going then?" Iris asked and they all agreed, though Usopp seemed upset to be leaving the giants. He felt like he had grown some sort of bond with them, and he wanted to continue learning from them.

"Well you can stay behind with them if you want. They won't be able to teach you martial arts though," Iris said.

"I never said I was staying behind! And I don't want to learn martial arts from them. I want to learn the pride of a brave warrior of the sea!" he shouted.

She laughed and shook her head at him. If he wanted to learn pride he could learn that from any of them. With the exception of Vivi, who wasn't part of their crew, they were all prideful people in their own ways. Though they probably couldn't be considered brave warriors of the sea yet as they hadn't spent much time on the sea yet. They'd get there.

The giants started discussing something among themselves Zoro and Sanji started bickering about the hunting contest. Sanji had caught something he said was ginormous, and Zoro was positive that what he had caught was bigger than whatever Sanji had caught.

"I caught a rhino that was huge!" Zoro said.

"It was a dinosaur," Iris corrected him.

"You guys caught a dinosaur?!" Usopp shouted.

"Zoro did. I just watched," Iris said.

Zoro was grinning from ear to ear about having the dinosaur he had killed being talked about. It was cute how proud he was of his catch. Luffy decided they were going to leave and they all said their goodbyes to the giants and started walking back towards the boat.

"Uhh... Iris, where did the dinosaur get left at?" Zoro asked her.

"I was passed out when they took us away from that spot... Remember? I can try and find it, but I can't guarantee anything. And how are you walking with your legs cut up like that?" she asked him.

"I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me," he replied.

"Somebody's got to," she stated and started walking into the jungle. She didn't know exactly where she was, but she should be able to figure it out. She looked over her shoulder to make sure Zoro was following her, and he was. That was good; she didn't want him wandering off and getting lost on his way back to the boat.

She walked around for awhile and made a few wrong turns, but finally stumbled on the dinosaur. She grabbed one of the horns and started dragging the dinosaur behind her. It was heavy and it would be quite a workout to drag it back, but she'd do it. She didn't want to look weak in front of Zoro and not be able to get it back to the ship after having starting to do so though.

"I can carry it," Zoro protested.

"Nah. I got it," she responded. When he tried to grab onto the horn and take it from her she glared at him and he stopped. While he was fully capable of carrying it back she wasn't going to let him just have his way. He was injured and should be not doing anything too strenuous until they got back to the ship and were able to bandage his ankles.

He mumbled something under his breath and when she asked him what he had said he kept his mouth shut. He was a stubborn individual, but so was she. Neither of them were the type to give into others, and that was probably part of what attracted her to him. She had always known that if she were to ever find a guy that he'd need to be able to match her in stubbornness; life would be no fun if she was around somebody that gave into her all the time. She didn't like pushovers.

"Oh, I forgot about the explosive guy! I was going to leave him in the sea..." she said when she realized she had left him passed out back near the giants.

"Just forget about him," Zoro said and kept walking. He was still pouting about her dragging the dinosaur back and not letting him do it. The bleeding in his legs seemed to be slowing, but he was still bleeding. She wasn't going to let him further his injury.

They got back to the ship and the others were already all there. Luffy, Nami, Usopp, and Vivi were on the ship and Sanji was waiting in front of it with his catch. He also had a dinosaur, and it was quite large.

"Oh, Iris! Did you catch that? It's amazing!" Sanji shouted when he saw her dragging the dinosaur.

"Nah," she replied and he instantly became less impressed with the dinosaur.

"Oy, Zoro! Why are you just watching her bring it? You should be a man and do it yourself!" Sanji shouted.

Zoro shouted back that she wouldn't let him bring it back, and the two started bickering like typically they did. She let go of the dinosaur and jumped into the water for a moment to make sure her gills weren't clogged with any wax, and then climbed onto the ship.

"I'm ready to leave this stupid island... And I don't think I ever want to see a candle ever again," she said as she pulled her now wet hair back into a bun. This island didn't have a pleasant connotation to it in the least. She had very nearly died, been captured by people that she was embarrassed to have been caught by, and had her heart broken by Zoro. She wanted nothing more than to sail away and leave this place behind her.

Zoro and Sanji finally got on the ship after packing up as much of the dinosaur meat as they were able to store on the ship and the anchor was pulled up. The sails were let down, and they started to sail through the canal they were in towards the sea. They were finally on the path towards Alabasta.

As they got close to the sea they could see the giants standing on either side of the canal. The giants spoke of a reason that most little humans didn't make it off the island, and said that because they had fought to restore the giant's pride that the giants would fight to make sure that their pride would remain intact.

"You must promise us that you will sail straight ahead no matter what," one of the giants instructed.

"Got it!" Luffy shouted.

"Farewell! Let us meet again!" the giants shouted as the boat reached the end of the canal and hit the sea. "Sail straight ahead!"


	18. Chapter 18

As they started sailing straight ahead like the giants had instructed something started rising out of the ocean in front of them. It looked like a giant goldfish, and Iris couldn't help but laugh. They had all heard Usopp's story about the giant goldfish with poop the size of islands, and here the giant goldfish was staring them straight in the eye.

"I think I've heard of giant goldfish somewhere before..." she said and looked at Usopp. He looked terrified, but he was going to put whatever faith he could muster into the giants' instructions. Becoming a brave warrior of the sea meant putting his fears behind him, and he seemed to be trying his hardest to do so.

Nami started shouting out instructions to turn the boat, but neither Usopp or Luffy were willing to do anything to turn the boat. If Luffy didn't want to turn the boat around then she wasn't going to go against his decision. Zoro didn't seem terribly upset by the situation and was watching the scene unfold in front of them. Sanji wasn't anywhere in sight and must be in the kitchen packing away the dinosaur meat. Usopp was putting on his best brave face as he put his hopes in the giants' instructions.

"We need to turn this boat now or we're going to be swallowed alive!" Nami shouted.

"Luffy looks like he's already made his decision... Good luck changing his mind," Iris said as she looked at Luffy. Before she had set sail with Luffy this would have freaked her out too, in fact it probably would have still freaked her out until very recently even after setting sail with him. She was having to learn not to think too much about what they were doing, because it didn't make sense most of the time. Sailing the Grand Line with Luffy was forcing her to learn to be much more flexible, and to not freak out about things.

"This is so stupid! We managed to get out of a near death situation and now we're doing something to get ourselves killed again!" Nami continued shouting.

"You guys can't be serious! This is suicide!" Vivi cried.

"Keep going straight ahead!" Luffy shouted with a grin plastered on his face.

Iris wasn't sure that they were making correct decision by sailing straight towards the giant goldfish, but if they tried to sail around it that didn't mean the fish wouldn't simply change course and still swallow them. Trusting what the giants had told them to do and that things would work out seemed like as good of an option as anything to her.

The Going Merry continued sailing towards the giant goldfish. The boat was swallowed, and Iris could hear Nami crying about how they were all dead now. It was pitch black inside the goldfish and Iris couldn't see anything, and so she chose to stay put in her spot. Nami's crying was annoying, but she bit her tongue rather than telling the girl to buck up.

"Those giants better have known what they were talking about..." Nami cried. Iris crossed her arms over her chest and she realized as her arms touched her chest that she still only had on her sports bra. As soon as she could see again she would rush off to her room and find a top to put on. She was now glad that it was dark around them since she knew her face had to be bright red.

The boat suddenly started shaking and Iris could see daylight once again. The Going Merry was now flying through the air and they were out of the goldfish. Iris looked behind them and saw that there was a gaping hole in the goldfish and the giants were standing triumphantly back at Little Garden. It was quite amazing that they were able to annihilate the giant fish and manage to let their crew get out safely at the same time.

The boat landed back in the water with a large splash, and once things had steadied enough to where she could move about easily enough she ran for her room. She shut the door behind her and quickly threw on a shirt. She caught a glimpse of herself in the full length mirror that Nami had placed in the room and couldn't help but notice that she looked different.

It probably wasn't a super noticeable difference to anybody else, but it was obvious to her. Not only did she have a new tattoo and a new scar, but she looked happier. Her eyebrows naturally furrowed down and made her look like she was glaring most of the time, but they were a little more relaxed now. In fact it seemed like all the muscles in her face were somewhat more relaxed. She didn't have to be on constant guard with these people, and it was showing through her face.

Her posture was less guarded as well. These people were aware that she was a fishman and accepted her without so much as a second thought. She was part of their group, and that was something special to her. She still didn't feel like she fit in well with humanity, but that was okay. She fit in just fine among this little group of misfits that she was traveling with.

She plopped down onto her bed and closed her eyes to try and process the events of the day. It was strange to her that even though she had just almost died she was still happier than she had been in years. In the moments that she had thought she was dying she was beyond frustrated and was panicking, but she was able to let go of that much easier than she had thought she'd be able to now that she had made it through.

Quite frankly it wasn't normal for a person to be able to dismiss a near death incident. When she thought about it it still freaked her out and she could still feeling the pain from the wax hardening inside her body, but she was able to push it out of her mind well enough. While it seemed like a relief to not be able to focus on the event it also made her worry. She shouldn't be able to get over that, and it should make her guard even higher than normal. The only explanation that she could come up with was that Luffy's carefree personality was wearing off on her.

On the other hand the subject she wanted to ignore but wouldn't leave her brain was Zoro. It broke her heart a little more each time she thought about him. Her brain knew that his not wanting to be distracted from his goal was more than reasonable, but her heart still hurt. She wished that she could reason with her heart, but that didn't seem to work.

Her heart felt heavy in her chest as she thought about his rejection, even if he didn't mean it as a rejection. She was angry at herself for getting her hopes up, and frustrated that she let herself get so attached to him in the first place. She was stupid for letting her heart get caught up in some fairy tale dream when she knew that it wouldn't play out into reality. Things never worked out well like that for her.

Tears started flowing down her cheeks and her frustration level grew. She should not be crying over a human that she had known for a short time. She shouldn't be crying over a human at all for that matter. The thing that got to her the most was that he didn't even know what his words had done to her. After her initial angry reaction to him telling her that she was a reaction she had tried to play it cool. She didn't know how things wouldn't be weird between them even if they tried though; it seemed like an uphill battle that they wouldn't be able to win. Things would be weird, and while the guys might not notice it Nami definitely would.

Iris knew that she was going to have to explain all of this to Nami at some point and she wasn't looking forward to it. Nami had seen Zoro's behavior towards her at Whiskey Peak, and Iris had been forced to promise to tell Nami at some point. She wasn't looking forward to that talk.

She then let her brain wander to thoughts of her dad. She wondered what he was doing right now and if he was alright. She had found out the name of the prison he had been taken to initially, but that was all she knew. She had been so excited to learn a bit of information, but it was such a small piece of information that it probably wouldn't be overly helpful in her search. Was he still in that prison? How harsh of a prison was it?

With everything that had happened today she wanted nothing more than to see her dad and have one of his great big bear hugs. He had always known how to comfort her when she was upset about something. She always knew that everything would work out fine with her dad around, but having to learn to cope on her own without him these past four years had been difficult.

She also wondered what he'd think about her becoming a pirate with a bounty on her head. She hoped that he'd be proud of her, but she worried that he'd be upset at her for doing something so reckless. He couldn't be too upset though; she was only following in his footsteps.

The one thing that she was sure of was that he'd like her friends. They were all good people, and he would definitely be glad that she overcame her own prejudices against humans to set sail with a group of them. She knew her friends would like her dad too; he was a very likable man. She couldn't wait for the day the he could meet everybody. Hopefully that day would come soon.

She wondered what her dad would think of Zoro. Would they get along? Would her dad approve of her feelings towards Zoro? Zoro's personality and her dad's personality weren't exactly similar, but that didn't mean they couldn't get along. There probably wasn't any reason to think about it though; Zoro and her weren't together or anything so her dad wouldn't even need to know how she felt about Zoro.

Her thoughts were then interrupted by Vivi busting through the door and shouting that Nami had come down with an extremely high fever. Iris jumped up and ran out of the doorway to see Nami collapsed on the ground sweating with her whole body quivering. The others were hovering over Nami not sure what to do.

"We should get her in bed," Vivi said.

Iris pushed the boys out of the way and scooped Nami up into her arms. The girl was ridiculously hot and her breathing was labored. She had seemed just fine when they set sail from Little Garden. It seemed crazy to Iris that someone could fall this ill this quickly. Whatever had taken over Nami was definitely bad; hopefully none of them caught it.

"I'm fine..." Nami mumbled.

"You are so not fine that it's not even funny," Iris responded as she walked into their bedroom. She set Nami down in her bed and put her hand on Nami's forehead; besides being completely covered in sweat Nami's forehead was burning hot.

"We need to find her a doctor... Does anybody here have any medical knowledge?" Vivi said from behind them and Iris shook her head no. Nami seemed to have a little bit more knowledge on the subject than the rest of them, but even then she was no doctor. Vivi thought they should find a nearby island and look for a doctor before heading to Alabasta.

"She's probably suffering from the harsh climate change that happened when you all entered the Grand Line. It's a problem that all sailors encounter sooner or later," Vivi said.

"We'll just feed her some meat! Then she'll get better, right Sanji?" Luffy said. Iris looked around to see that all of the boys were in the room now. This was probably the first time that Iris had seen the boys in her room; Nami typically kept them out so that they wouldn't be able to ruin her maps she was drawing.

Sanji started explaining how he'd do his best to give Nami foods that would be easy for a sick person to eat, but without knowing exactly what the cause of her sickness was that he couldn't do too much. He was sure that whatever was making Nami sick wasn't related to malnutrition. He was probably correct about that; he made sure that they ate well.

"Don't worry about me... We have to get you to Alabasta," Nami interrupted in a barely audible volume. Nami tried to sit up to prove that she was fine, and Iris pushed her back down onto the bad and sat on Nami's middle to keep her down.

"You're in no shape to be moving around," Iris said.

"Get your big butt off me Iris," Nami said.

"Nah, I think I'll keep my big butt right here," Iris responded, and Nami didn't even try to struggle against her. Nami managed to point to drawer in her dresser and told Vivi to open it. Vivi opened the drawer and pulled out a newspaper, and her expression immediately turned grim. Apparently things in Alabasta had gotten worse, and the time frame she had to try and fix things had gotten smaller. Surely this was Crocodile's doing; he knew his identity was found out and so he would have to pick up the pace for his plan so that it wouldn't be overthrown.

"Aren't there doctors in Alabasta? How long until we arrive there?" Iris asked.

"About a week..." Vivi answered. Iris had a feeling that Nami wouldn't make it a week in this condition. Iris didn't like feeling helpless and not knowing how to help Nami. Iris couldn't remember the last time that she had been really sick, and so she didn't even know what to do for a sick person.

Iris then asked the boys to leave the room because they had started to be loud. Luffy started pouting about being kicked out and looked like he wasn't going to leave, and so she asked Sanji to take all the guys out of the room. Sanji seemed hesitant to leave Nami, but did as she asked.

"I need some fresh air... Let me up," Nami said.

"You need to rest," Iris said.

"I'm really fine... This is nothing," Nami said.

"People who are fine don't run ridiculous fevers and collapse onto the ground. Tell her she needs to stay put Vivi!" Iris said.

"She'd obviously sick... But maybe some fresh air would do her some good..." Vivi murmured without lifting her eyes from the newspaper. Things had to be significantly worse than she had thought they were in Alabasta judging by the horrified expression on her face. Her expression was continually getting more and more hopeless by the second and it was obvious that her brain was running at a million miles a second as she tried to figure out what she needed to do.

Iris was tempted to tell Vivi to remember that she was a passenger on their boat and that their crew members would take priority, but she knew that Nami would be angry at her for saying that. So instead she kept her mouth shut for the moment; she would have to have a conversation with the princess later if she hadn't already come to the conclusion that Nami was their priority.

"Fine..." Iris grumbled and got off of Nami. Iris' backside was drenched in Nami's sweat now, and if she wasn't so worried about Nami she'd be annoyed by the sweat. Nami pushed herself out of the bed with her body shaking the whole time. Iris watched as Nami stumbled out of the bedroom and then followed her; she'd watch over Nami and make sure that she got back to bed soon.

Nami started scolding Zoro as soon as she was out of the room; he was trying to make sure that they stayed on course by following a cloud. He had no idea that was a bad idea because clouds moved, and Iris laughed at him. How could he not know that clouds moved along with the wind?

"We need to change direction... I can feel a storm or something coming on. Probably..." Nami said.

"Are you sure you're not just so sick that you're having hallucinations?" Iris asked and got glared at immediately. "Fine... Fine... We'll get on that," Iris said and jumped down to the main deck of the ship. Sanji and Usopp ran to change the direction of the ship while she and Zoro let the sail down

"Everyone, I have a request to make of you..." Vivi stated once the ship had been turned around, and Iris glared at the princess. Vivi had better not request that they head straight to Alabasta before finding a doctor for Nami; there was no way Iris would let that happen.

"Things in my country are worse than I had imagined, and I have a duty to get back to Alabasta and try to stop this war from starting. Therefore I ask that you travel to Alabasta at the fastest speed possible," Vivi continued. Iris was about to tell the princess no way, but was stopped when Vivi continued.

"Isn't the fastest way there going to be with a healthy navigator? We need to find Nami a doctor right away so that we can get to Alabasta in the fastest speed possible," Vivi finished. Iris was relieved to hear Vivi say that. Not that Iris would have listened had Vivi suggested they wait until Alabasta to get Nami medical attention, but it was still reassuring to know that Vivi was considering Nami's well being.

Just then Nami started to collapse again, and Vivi caught her. Iris rushed up to where they were and heard Luffy screaming about something or another. She turned her attention to where Luffy was looking and saw a giant cyclone where their ship had just been sailing towards. If they hadn't changed direction the ship would have been pulled into that and they all would have been dead. It was amazing that even with as sick as Nami was that she was able to predict something like that.

"Come on Vivi, let's get her back into bed," Iris said. Vivi followed Iris into the bedroom and Iris shut the door behind them. The boys were worried about Nami too, but they were so loud. Nami wouldn't be able to get any rest if the boys were in the room.

Once Nami was situated in her bed Iris sat down on her bed across from Nami. Iris hadn't ever seen somebody that looked so sick before and it was worrying her. Nami had to be alright; she was part of their group and they wouldn't be able to function the same without her. If something happened to Nami it would also mean that Iris would be the only female on the crew and that Sanji would only have her to focus on. She knew that thought was extremely selfish and terrible, but she definitely didn't want to be the only female on the crew.

"I've never seen a navigator like her before. Those cyclones are said to be impossible to predict," Vivi said.

"She's the best. That's why the future pirate king has her on his crew," Iris responded. Even if Nami and Iris didn't always get along great Iris couldn't deny Nami's abilities as a navigator. It was like a sixth sense for her; she could react to things without having to ever think about it.

Iris leaned back in her bed and shut her eyes. She realized that she hadn't slept since before they had entered the Grand Line and was now quite tired. She tried not to drift off to sleep, but wasn't able to avoid doing so. Her brain started shutting down and before she knew it she was passed out.

When she woke back up she looked at the clock and saw that three hours had passed. Vivi was still kneeling next to Nami's bed trying to take care of her. Iris stood up and stretched out her arms, and told Vivi to take a break for a bit.

"Don't worry about me," Vivi said.

"I'm not. But you can still take a break and get some fresh air. Go make sure the boys haven't completely gotten us lost, and I can take care of Nami for a bit," Iris said.

Vivi seemed hesitant to leave, but did after Iris kept prodding her. She handed Iris the cold damp towel she was using to try and keep Nami's temperature down. Iris thanked the princess as she left the room and shut the door behind herself.

Iris looked to Nami who looked even worse off than she had a few hours ago. Hopefully they would find an island and a doctor soon; Iris didn't want to think about what might happen if they didn't find something soon.

Iris sat down on Nami's bed and felt the heat radiating off of Nami. Her breathing was still labored, and her face still had a pained expression on it. Iris put the damp towel on Nami's forehead, though she doubted that it was doing anything to really help keep the temperature down. If anything it seemed to be absorbing the sweat and heat on her forehead.

"Hey... Iris..." Nami murmured.

"You're awake?" Iris asked.

"Yeah... You promised... That you'd tell me about Zoro..." Nami continued. Iris didn't want to talk about it, though she had unfortunately promised to tell Nami about it later in order to get Nami off her back at the time. She supposed that since nobody else was around she could talk about it, and maybe it would help distract Nami from how sick she was.

Iris sighed and then filled Nami in about how Zoro had come onto her in Whiskey Peak, and then about their conversation in Little Garden. She kind of hoped that Nami would fall back asleep as Iris was talking to her, but Nami seemed interested enough in what Iris had to say that she was forcing herself to stay awake.

Once Iris started talking about the situation she ended up filling Nami in a whole lot more than she had meant to. It felt better to talk about it out loud rather than keeping it all in like she always did. She had never been big on talking about her feelings before, but perhaps she should start venting more often. Talking about it out loud with Nami, even if Nami didn't have the energy to respond to anything, came a lot easier than she had expected. By the time she was done talking she felt better about the whole situation.

Iris decided while she was talking to Nami that Zoro had a right to be focused on his goal, and if he knew that Iris would distract him from the goal then he was making the right decision. She would cut off anybody that would distract her from rescuing her father, and so she could identify with his feelings even though it still hurt. If only coming to peace with the situation in her mind would mean the pain in her heart would subside. Unfortunately for her that pain seemed to be stubbornly sticking around.

"He's stupid... I'll punch him for you," Nami said when Iris stopped talking.

"Go for it once you're feeling better. Say... Is this how normal girl friends interact with each other?" Iris asked, and Nami nodded her head with a halfhearted smile on her face. Even though Iris had done all of the talking and was covering a subject she didn't want to talk about she definitely felt closer to Nami now. This had turned into some sort of bonding experience.

After a few minutes Nami seemed to have fallen asleep again, or perhaps passed out. Iris was glad that she had been able to distract Nami from her illness even if only slightly, but it wasn't able to last.

After a couple of hours Iris noticed that the towel that was resting on Nami's forehead was rather hot now. She decided to go find a new rag that wasn't covered in sweat to dip in cold water for the sick girl.

She stood up and walked out of the room to find Sanji standing near the door with a worried look on his face. He had some water and a bowl of soup that he was carrying on a tray that was obviously for Nami.

"Is she okay?" he asked.

"No... I don't think so. We really need to find a doctor," Iris responded.

"Is she awake? I brought her some soup and water to keep her hydrated..." he said.

"I don't think so, but thank you. Go set it down on the night stand between her bed and mine and I'll make sure she eats if she wakes back up," Iris said.

"I'm glad she has you and Vivi to take care of her... I don't know what I'll do if something happens to Nami," he said as tears started welling up in his eyes. Even with as much as he annoyed her it was sweet how concerned he was for Nami. The other guys seemed concerned too, but they weren't dwelling solely on the illness that had overtaken Nami. Sanji, on the other hand, probably wouldn't be able to focus on much of anything until Nami was better.

"I brought a drink for you too. Your arm seems to be doing better... But I brought some more tea to help continue the healing process," he said. She thanked him and grabbed the tea off the tray before heading towards the bathroom to find another rag.

After finding a clean rag she headed back to the room and was caught by Vivi. Vivi offered to take over taking care of Nami for awhile and said that Iris should take a break. When Iris tried to push past Vivi, Vivi reminded Iris that she had made Vivi take a beak when she hadn't wanted to.

Iris reluctantly handed the rag to Vivi and walked to the front of the boat near where Luffy was sitting on the head of the bow. The salty air blowing past her as they sailed was refreshing. She was tempted to jump off the boat and into the sea, but she was worried that if she did that Vivi might need some help with Nami. Iris knew she wouldn't be able to do too much with her lack of medical knowledge, but that didn't mean she wouldn't do absolutely everything that she could do to help out.

"How's Nami?" Luffy asked.

"She's not good. We need to find an island as soon as possible," Iris replied. She then looked around for Zoro and Usopp, and saw that Usopp was in the crow's nest looking for an island while Zoro was off to the side training. It seemed like Zoro was always either training or sleeping. She wondered if he was still willing to teach her how to use a sword. The sword was still sitting in her room as it had been since she had swiped it from Arlong Park; she hadn't even tried to use it with the injury to her arm she had gotten from Arlong.

Now didn't seem the time to bring that up though. She finished her tea from Sanji and made her way to the kitchen to wash the cup and put it away. She was tempted to grab some sake from the cabinet, but decided against it and instead walked back out of the kitchen.

She walked over to the mast and climbed up it to join Usopp in the crow's nest. Her arm still hurt as she climbed, but the fact that she was able to use it climb up was definitely a big improvement. She climbed into the crow's nest a surprised Usopp enough that he shrieked.

"You're such a sissy," she said with a laugh.

"I wasn't actually scared! But maybe announce yourself next time before appearing out of nowhere like that!" he said.

"We'll see. Still no islands in sight?" she asked and he shook his head no.

"Is she that bad? You seem awfully worried... That's no like you," he said.

"She seems like she's in a lot of pain... I've never seen somebody so sick before," Iris answered. That wasn't entirely true since she had seen her mom had die of some illness, but Iris had been so young that she didn't remember it. The only reason she could even remember what her mom looked like was because of pictures, and she really hadn't seen people sick with anything worse than a cold or the flu that she could remember until now.

She started watching the horizon for any sign of an island, but soon her eyes wandered to watching Zoro train. His ankles were taped up and had to be hurting like crazy from where he had cut into them just hours earlier. He probably should let his body heal, but he wasn't the type to do that. He was using his frustration at not being able to free them from the wax as energy to train.

Currently he was swinging around a bar that had some rather heavy weights on it like he'd swing a sword. Her heart still felt heavy thinking about him, but she couldn't bring herself to turn her attention away from him. His determination and focus was super sexy even though that same determination and focus was what made him think of her as a distraction.

His muscular body, which was on display since he wasn't wearing a shirt currently, was also obviously extremely attractive. She could see the strain in his muscles as he swung the weights. She knew she should probably be training as well since she wasn't able to do anything against the wax either, but currently she wasn't feeling any motivation. Currently she was tired, worried about Nami, depressed about the lack of relationship between her and Zoro, and kind of hungry to top it all off.

"Iris... Hey, Iris? Earth to Iris!" Usopp said.

"Huh? What is it?" she asked as she was pulled out of her thoughts.

"You were staring off into space... You're not getting sick too, are you?" he asked.

"Nope. I'm tired and distracted is all. When did you want your next lesson in martial arts?" she asked him trying to change the subject while hoping that he hadn't noticed that she was staring at Zoro and not just staring off into space. She didn't want to have that conversation with him... She needed to work on being more discreet.

"Maybe after we find a doctor for Nami?" he said questioningly as if he was worried that he was responding incorrectly, but she agreed with him. She said that once they had made sure that Nami was safe that she'd resume training him. In the mean time he needed to continue practicing the things that she had shown him already. He still didn't see how the things she had shown him would be useful and so smacked him on the side of the head.

"Don't talk back to me about martial arts Usopp. Keep running your mouth and I'm done," she said before jumping out of the crow's nest back down to the main deck. Usopp was looking down at her in surprise as if he wouldn't have expected her to do such a thing, and she found that humorous. He might be a normal human who couldn't do such a thing without injury, but he was surrounded by people who could jump out of much higher places than the crow's nest and not be hurt. He should be used to behavior like that by now.

Just then Vivi popped her head out of the bedroom and asked for Iris to come there. Iris hurried to the bedroom worrying that something was wrong, but nothing seemed to be any different than it had been when she left. The food and water that Sanji had brought in remained untouched, and Sanji was standing near Nami's bed watching her with concern.

"She's going to be alright, right Iris?" Sanji asked without taking his eyes off of Nami.

"Yeah, she will," she responded trying to sound more reassuring than she felt.

"Have either of you eaten recently? Can I get you ladies anything?" he then asked.

"Actually, I am kind of hungry," Iris said while Vivi turned him down and said she wasn't hungry. He seemed glad that Iris had accepted his offer, but there was a hesitation in leaving Nami's side. He eventually excused himself and left the room.

"She woke up momentarily and was asking where you had went. I told her you were getting some fresh air and she didn't want me to bother you, but I thought it might be helpful for her if you were here. The bond between you two must be stronger than it looks from the outside..." Vivi said as she knelt down next to Nami's bed.

Iris was surprised to hear that Nami had asked about her, but she was also kind of happy. Despite how rough their relationship had been previously they were slowly but surely becoming friends; this was proof enough of that for Iris.

"She'll be glad you're here if she wakes up again, I think," Vivi said.

Vivi was turning out to be a very kind girl. She wasn't at all what Iris had stereotyped her to be, and that was a good thing. Iris should know better than to stereotype people with how awfully fishmen were stereotyped, but that never seemed to stop her from doing it. Maybe one day she'd learn better.

Vivi then asked about Iris' relationship with Nami and why there seemed to be distance between them, and Iris decided she might as well tell Vivi. It wasn't information that Vivi needed to know, but the girl seemed to genuinely care about them all enough that it wouldn't hurt Iris to open up and explain the situation.

Iris briefly explained growing up with her dad and how watching the way humans treated her dad caused her to have a very negative opinion of humans. She then went on to tell Vivi about how she had met Luffy and the others, and how she had not told them she was half fishmen; the only one who seemed to realize that Iris was part fishman was Nami and she was definitely showing signs of racism.

Iris then talked about what had happened at Arlong Park. She told her about Nami had been forced to join the Arlong Pirates, and how Nami and her village had been terrorized by fishmen. Vivi had of look of horror on her face as Iris talked about how awful the Arlong Pirates were, and Iris couldn't blame her. Fishmen like Arlong and his crew only served to worsen the reputation of fishmen.

Iris continued talking about how she helped Luffy fight against the fishmen and pointed out the scar on her shoulder from Arlong's bite. She ended her explanation by saying that after the events at Arlong Park that both her and Nami had decided they'd work on being friends. It was awkward at times, and they still get on each other's nerves, but the hostility between them was gone.

Iris finished talking and they sat in silence as they tended to Nami. Eventually Sanji came back with some food and brought enough for both Iris and Vivi despite Vivi saying she wasn't hungry. Iris' stomach started growling the instant she smelled the delicious food, and she scarfed it down quickly.

"Thank you, that was super good," she said as she set aside the empty plate, and Sanji grinned at her compliment. She was trying to be nicer to him, and she hoped that he could tell. She had told him she would try to be more patient with him, and she now felt the need to be even more patient with him since her near death experience. Despite feeling the need to be nicer to him it was still a difficult task for her; she was a ridiculously stubborn girl and had to fight herself constantly to not be angry and impatient with him.

Eventually the others started making their way into the room to check on Nami. The room wasn't really big enough for everybody, and so Iris said she'd take a turn watching for an island. She grabbed the binoculars from Usopp and climbed up into the crow's nest.

The sun had now set and stars filled the nighttime sky. It would have been a perfectly peaceful evening if it wasn't for Nami's being sick. The air aboard the ship was tense from everybody worrying, and it was getting worse every moment that an island didn't appear on the horizon.

As dawn drew near there was still no sign of any island on the horizon. Iris was completely exhausted, but she couldn't afford to fall asleep. Nobody had come out of her room recently other than Sanji, so she assumed that they were all asleep in there while Sanji was making breakfast in the kitchen. Hopefully he'd make some coffee so that she could stay awake longer.

She continued to watch until she could feel somebody climbing up the mast. She looked down from the crow's nest to see Zoro climbing up, and let him take the binoculars from her when he hopped into the crow's nest. It was getting colder out, and she was ready for a break to get some food and take a nap.

"How's Nami?" she asked.

"About the same. Still super sick," he responded.

She stood there for a moment looking out along the horizon wishing that she could will an island to appear. She then wished that she had the ability she had heard that merfolk had; the ability to talk with fish and sea creatures. Her dad had said that merfolk posses the unique ability, and it would definitely come in handy right now. If she could talk with fish she could ask where the closest island was. Merfolk didn't know how lucky they were to possess such a handy ability!

"Are you okay Iris?" Zoro asked.

"Yeah, why?" she responded. This was the second time since they left Little Garden that she had been caught spacing out. She was embarrassed that she had been caught loosing focus again, especially since she was caught by Zoro this time. She didn't want him to think she was a space case because she wasn't. This wasn't normal behavior for her. She attributed it to being tired and being worried about Nami.

"Okay, just checking... By the way, you're not still mad at me are you?" he asked.

"No. Why would I be?" she asked in a defensive manner.

"That's not convincing. I already said I'm sorry, what more do you want?" he asked.

The truth was she wanted him to be as interested in her as she was in him, but she couldn't tell him that. She was telling the truth when she said she wasn't angry, but she was still hurting. That hurt was coming across as anger, and that would be a problem. She had a hard time expressing emotions that she saw a weak, like sadness and hurt, so they came out as angry. Most emotions came out as anger with her. She would have to work on that.

"Sorry... I'm just worried about Nami and I'm tired. I'm not angry at you," she said.

"If you say so..." he said as he held up the binoculars and started watching the horizon. She sunk down onto the floor of the crow's nest and rested her head against the wall. She probably should go back down and get something to eat and check on Nami, but she didn't want to leave the crow's nest now that Zoro was in it. She realized that she must be a glutton for punishment for not having the desire to leave him, but realizing that still didn't help her feel motivated to leave.

So instead she stayed there and closed her eyes. She felt comfortable at his side, and soon her eyes were so heavy that she couldn't hardly keep them open any longer. She fell asleep without a passing thought.

The next thing she knew she was waking up to Zoro asking something. It was significantly colder that it had been when she had fallen asleep, and she was covered by a blanket. She looked up to Zoro who had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and was squinting at something without the binoculars.

"What did you say?" she asked as she rubbed her eyes trying to wake herself up.

"Can people stand on water?" he asked.

"Not that I'm aware of..." she responded and stood up pulling the blanket tightly around her body. She grabbed the binoculars out of his hands and looked through them, and surely enough there was somebody standing on the water. The man was dressed in some sort of ridiculous jester outfit, and looked to be rather simple. She rubbed her eyes again to make sure she was actually seeing this, and sure enough he was still there when she looked through the binoculars again.

"How can this be?" she asked Zoro.

"I dunno," he replied.


	19. Chapter 19

"Do you guys see that?" Iris called out to Luffy and Usopp who were on the main deck of the ship as she pointed towards the man. Both Usopp and Luffy were looking on in disbelief as their boat neared the guy standing on the ocean. She was curious how he was accomplishing such a feat; even fishmen and merfolk wouldn't be able to stand on the water like that, and it couldn't be a devil fruit because he would lose all power touching the sea like he was.

"Quite cold today, isn't it?" the strange man asked.

Luffy and Usopp started talking about how it was in fact rather cold, and suddenly the ocean waves seemed to get bigger and it became apparent that something was under the man that was now rising up. So he was standing on top of something that was just under the surface of the water and not standing on the water after all.

Iris watched as a giant ship popped out of the ocean and the Going Merry started to thrash about from the waves that were created. She held onto the edge of the crow's nest so that she wouldn't be thrown out, and she felt Zoro's body behind hers and then felt his hands holding onto the edge right next to her hands. Her body stiffened as she wished that he would have grabbed onto another spot that didn't require his body touching hers; she was trying to not be a distraction to him but he was still proving to be a distraction to her.

As the boat steadied he let go of the edge and stepped to the side. If he noticed the awkwardness she felt from his touch he didn't show it; it seemed he was completely focused on the ship that was now in front of them.

Iris focused her attention back on the ship as well. The ship was enormous and rather impressive. She imagined it would take a whole lot of money to be able to have such a large ship that was submersible like this one was. This ship was so large that it made the Going Merry seem like a child's play thing.

The next thing she knew people were boarding their ship and holding guns that were pointed at them. Her blood pressure immediately started boiling; they didn't have time to deal with these idiots while Nami was sick.

"You bastards better get the hell off this ship!" she shouted down to the strangers right as Sanji came out of her room demanding to know what all the ruckus was about. Somebody with a gun stopped Sanji by pointing it at his head as Luffy explained that they had been ambushed.

Then an idiotic, ugly, and large man walked onto the boat holding a knife with a piece of fruit skewered on it. It looked like he was probably the captain of the ship from the way the people around him acted, though she couldn't imagine why anybody would choose to follow somebody like that. The man then ate the fruit and the knife as well; he must be some sort of devil fruit eater. How else could he eat a knife and be unharmed by it?

The man was looking for directions for someplace called Drum Kingdom, and was asking for them to hand over any eternal pose to Drum Kingdom they might have or for a log pose. Iris hadn't heard of Drum Kingdom before, and she assumed that the others hadn't either. There was no way they were handing over their log pose though; this idiot had another thing coming if he thought they'd give in to his demands.

"If you're done asking for things you can go now," Luffy said.

The man didn't like Luffy's answer and then threatened to take their ship and any treasure on board. The man then opened his mouth wide enough that he was able to fit his mouth around the side of the ship and bite into it. If her blood pressure was boiling a moment ago it was exploding; this asshole had no right to start damaging their ship.

Before she was able to react Luffy angrily started going after the large man, and she decided that was a good enough signal that she could start fighting these people. Her arm was now feeling well enough that she wasn't worrying about it too much. These people didn't seem very strong anyway.

She jumped out of the crow's nest and immediately went on the offensive. The people that had guns started shooting at them, but their movements were slow and easy to read. She dodged their bullets and grabbed onto the arm of one of the people that was within reaching distance, pulled the guy's arm backwards so that his elbow was dislocated, and threw the man into a bunch enemies.

She continued fighting and ended up throwing people overboard as she got to them. She got so caught up in her fighting that she had stopped paying attention to what the others were doing until she heard some screaming and yelling. She looked towards where Luffy was and saw the large, ugly man flying off away from the ship.

The enemies on the ship started to retreat back towards their boat, but Iris wasn't just going to let them leave easily. They had boarded the Going Merry, caused damage to the ship, and tried to attack. She grabbed onto the shoulder of a man running off and threw him overboard after dislocating his shoulder. She managed to get to a good three of four more people and threw them overboard after injuring them before they were all off of the boat.

She watched the large boat sail off and leave behind the people she had thrown overboard. Vivi seemed concerned about the people that had been thrown overboard drowning, but went back to Nami's side rather than trying to help them. Vivi made the right decision since there was no way in hell that Iris would let Vivi help them; these people deserved to drown.

Iris was still angry, but as she calmed down she realized just how cold it was outside. She had dropped the blanket that was wrapped around her when she had jumped out of the crow's nest, and so she hurried to her room to grab her jacket.

She dug through her clothes and found the jacket, and threw it on. Even with the door being shut to keep the elements outside the room was still quite cold, and somehow Nami was still burning up and sweating. Thankfully the idiotic pirates that had tried to stop them hadn't been much of a threat, and they had been able to get back on their way quickly enough. Every second they didn't find an island could be detrimental to Nami.

Iris told Vivi to go take a break from watching over Nami, and this time Vivi accepted more easily than the last time Iris had instructed her to take a break. Vivi left and Iris sat down on the edge of Nami's bed. Vivi's pet duck was sleeping in the corner of the room so quietly that Iris had practically forgotten it was even on the boat.

As Iris sat on the edge of the bed watching Nami for any sign of her doing better or worse she let mind drift. It drifted over the things she always thought about: her father, Zoro, and how strange she still felt about being friends with a group of humans. She hoped that soon they might find a non human to join the crew at some point in their journey. She had no idea how many other races other than humans there were in the Grand Line, but there had to be at least a few.

A few hours went by and the others came and went from the room to check on Nami. Sanji stayed in the room except for when he was cooking food, and he didn't have time to bother her at all with his attention being focused completely on Nami. She honestly to admit it was sweet how much he cared about the girl. He had also made sure that Iris remained well fed as she watched over Nami.

When night fell Sanji took over the watch duty on the ship, and the others slowly all made their way to Iris and Nami's bedroom. It was clear that they were all worried enough about Nami that they were going to stay the night in the room. The room didn't really have the space for all of them to sleep comfortably, but if the boys wanted to sleep on the floor she wasn't going to stop them. She understood how worried they were about Nami.

Iris crawled into her bed and the warmth of the covers was a welcome feeling. Even with her jacket on she had been cold all day, and she hadn't let herself get into her bed until now because she knew she'd fall asleep. If everybody else was willing to fall asleep though, then perhaps she could allow herself to rest as well. She hadn't slept much at all the past few days, and she reasoned that it would be good for her to be well rested when they found an island in case there were people from Baroque Works there waiting. That scenario didn't seem likely, but on the off chance it happened they'd need to be ready for a fight.

The next morning when she woke up it was only Zoro and herself in the room with Nami. Iris sat up and swung her feet over the edge of her bed as she ran her hands through her messy hair. She looked to Nami who looked to be in about the same state she had been before Iris had fallen asleep. Hopefully they would be able to find a doctor for Nami today.

When Vivi came back into the room Iris took the opportunity to go to the bathroom and jump in the bathtub. She had been in the ocean a few times, but she hadn't bathed with soap after getting Laboon's stomach acid on herself. Every now and again she would still smell it in her hair, and so she was sure that meant the others could smell it too.

Iris grabbed some clean clothes before leaving her room and then promptly locked herself in the bathroom. She felt slightly guilty about taking the time to relax and take a bath when everybody else was doing something productive, but she needed a bath. She might be a pirate now, but she wasn't going to be a dirty and smelly pirate.

The warm soapy water felt wonderful on her skin as she climbed in the tub and quickly scrubbed her body. The new tattoo on her chest was finally healed up enough that the soapy water wasn't irritating it, and she didn't have any fresh wounds on her body that would burn from the water touching them. She was glad that her body was mostly back to normal.

When she decided she shouldn't spend any longer in the bath she got out, dried off with a towel, and put on her clean clothes. She ran a comb through her long wet hair before braiding it to keep it out of her face, and walked out of the bathroom.

She could smell food cooking from the kitchen, and saw Usopp and Luffy watching for land. She walked back to her room to find Vivi at Nami's bedside, and Zoro still sleeping. She couldn't help but stare as he slept; he was so peaceful looking.

"You can pull up a chair, or sit on my bed rather than sitting on the floor..." Iris offered to Vivi, but the princess didn't seem interested. Vivi had gone out of her way to try and take care of Nami, which Iris figured was because she was trying to distract herself from the situation in Alabasta. Iris wanted to take the burden of caring for Nami away from Vivi, but she had a feeling that Vivi would be more focused on her troubles if she forced the princess out the door. It was probably best to let Vivi stay distracted with Nami.

At some point Zoro woke up and made his way out of the room to go be useful outside, and Iris sat in silence with Vivi as they watched Nami. Sanji came in and brought them food, but didn't stay this time like he had before. He was getting worked up from the nervous energy that he was storing up, and he probably realized he needed an outlet for that nervous energy that he wouldn't find in the room.

After eating Iris noticed that Vivi hadn't touched the food that Sanji had brought in. She watched Vivi, and the longer she sat and watched the more twitchy Vivi seemed to be getting. Taking care of Nami wasn't seeming to be a a big enough distraction for her any longer, and so Iris suggested that she go help the others try and find an island. Since Vivi was from the Grand Line she would surely have knowledge that would help them sail; with Nami being out of commission they needed all the help they could get.

"Vivi... You're so stressed out right now that it's stressing me out too. I'm sure Sanji would appreciate your help out there," Iris reasoned when Vivi didn't seem to want to leave. The stressful atmosphere in the room couldn't be good for Nami. Iris figured that with as bad off as Nami was at the moment that a calmer and less anxious environment around her was a necessity.

Vivi finally left the room, and sometime after that both Luffy and Zoro walked in to check on Nami. She asked if there had been any land sighted, but there hadn't been. Iris greatly wished that they would make landfall soon. Not only did they need to find a doctor for Nami, but she was getting restless as well. She had been spending most of her time in her and Nami's bedroom, and there wasn't much she could do to get rid of her excess energy.

"How's Nami?" Luffy asked.

"About the same," she replied.

Luffy dragged a chair over by the bed and sat down. She didn't know how he wasn't freezing since he was wearing his standard vest, shorts, and sandals. She was cold just looking at him, but he seemed to be perfectly fine.

Some more time passed, and she finally heard somebody outside shouting about seeing land ahead. Luffy was the most excited of them; he was trying his best to sit still and keep watching over Nami, but he wasn't doing a very successful job.

"Just go," Zoro finally said, and Luffy quickly ran out the door.

"I wonder what kind of island it is..." Iris said.

"You can go too," Zoro said.

"Nah, I'm sure I'll see it soon enough," she replied as she shook her head no. With as cold as it still was around them it was surely a cold island; it actually seemed to be getting colder with every passing minute. She figured there must be snow on the island or even perhaps ice. She wished now that she had some warmer shoes than her mary janes she was wearing. Walking through snow in these shoes didn't sound like much of a good time.

If it was an island covered in snow like she suspected she didn't know how Nami would hold up in that. Wouldn't the freezing temperatures be bad for somebody as sick as Nami was? Hopefully the doctor wouldn't be too far from the shore.

Not too long after Luffy had left the room Iris could hear a commotion outside. She got up to see what was going on, and then heard a shot. Her and Zoro both rushed for the bedroom door to see what was happening. She saw a bullet hole in the main deck of the ship near where Sanji was standing, and her temper flared instantly.

She jumped over the railing down to the main deck to join the others and prepare to fight. Sanji was about ready to attack when Vivi tried to stop him. As she pushed him back another bullet was fired and it hit her in the shoulder and knock her to the ground. Iris' temper was now sky rocketing.

"You bastards! I'll kill whoever did that," Iris growled and bared her teeth. Before she was able to jump to the bank to fight she saw Vivi get back up and stopped Luffy from fighting. How was Vivi not wanting to fight, or at least let them fight for her, when she had just been shot? Iris was seeing red and trying not to snap like she had back on Little Garden when the explosive guy had kicked Zoro in the face. How could Vivi now feel the same or at least similar?

What Vivi did next shocked all of them. She got down on her knees and put her forehead to the floor. She started promising not to even set foot on the land or into the country if a doctor could be brought out for their sick crew mate. Then, in quieter tone, she started lecturing Luffy on how fighting would not solve everything and how he wasn't being a proper captain by his first reaction always being to fight.

Iris thought that Vivi lecturing Luffy, despite Vivi being a princess, was misplaced and it ticked her off. Luffy was the captain, and she wasn't even part of the crew. She had no right to talk back to him or to tell him how to do things. Before Iris was able to voice her displeasure Luffy agreed with Vivi and apologized to the people standing on the bank, and then bowed his head to the ground while asking for a doctor for Nami.

There was no way that Iris would join in and bow her head too, and it looked like Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp had similar feelings to her. She didn't like Luffy bowing his head to these people, but she wasn't going to tell him what to do. It wasn't her place to tell the captain what to do and she knew that.

The one that appeared to be the leader of the group of people seemed to accept Vivi and Luffy's pleading, and agreed to take them inland to find a doctor. Iris wasn't sure she'd be able to trust people that started shooting at them unprovoked, but if they'd take her to a doctor she'd have to try and bite her tongue for Nami's sake.

Knowing she'd have a hard time biting her tongue she walked back into her room with Vivi following behind her. They'd have to get Nami in some warmer clothes if they were going onto an island covered in snow. This was definitely a less than ideal situation, but unfortunately this was the first island they had come to and they probably couldn't afford the time to try and find another island.

"Don't you think it's a little dishonorable for a princess to bow her head to other people like that?" Iris asked trying to conceal the anger in her voice.

"No. Not when Nami's life is in danger. And it's okay to show people respect," Vivi responded as they started putting warmer clothes on a still unconscious Nami.

"They shot you while they were trying to shoot Sanji! How can you say people like that deserve to be shown respect?" Iris growled.

"Do you really expect to sail up to an island in a pirate ship and not have people try and fend you off? Your thinking seems unreasonable to me. Even if you guys aren't bad people so many pirates are. How do you expect people to know that you guys have no ill intentions?" Vivi asked.

Vivi had a point; Iris did not have a favorable opinion of pirates before becoming one herself. Though Iris also had a very negative view of humanity in general and not just pirates. But even if they were pirates that still didn't justify these people shooting at them. There would never be a justification for that.

After they had gotten Nami into the warmest clothes they could find Vivi helped get Nami up onto Iris' back so that Iris could carry Nami to the doctor. Iris walked out of the room to find only Zoro still on the ship. He had decided that he'd stay behind and continue train while the rest went to go find a doctor.

"Are you sure?" Iris asked him.

"Yeah. I want to do some training," he responded.

"Well then stay on the ship... I don't want to have to go find you later because you got lost," she said cattily.

"I won't get lost!" he snapped back at her with his face turning red. She laughed at his embarrassment and walked towards the side of the boat closest to land after telling him goodbye. He had to know that he was terrible with directions even if he couldn't admit it, and he always gave a reaction when she poked his buttons like she just had.

Iris was then about to jump out of the boat onto land like she normally did, but stopped when she realized the shock of landing would probably not be good for Nami. So instead she used the ladder that she rarely bothered with. Climbing down the ladder while trying told up Nami and not let her slide or move around was not easy, but Iris made it down the ladder without seeming to disturb Nami.

When her feet hit the snow it covered her feet; she had been correct about her shoes being poorly suited for snow. There was nothing she could do about that at the moment though. The only option she had was to ignore how cold her feet and to focus on getting Nami to a doctor.

They started following the man that had said he'd lead them to the village, and all that Iris could think about was how much she couldn't stand these humans. If they have such a hatred for pirates that they'd open fire unprovoked they probably would hate her even more for being a fishman. Humans were judgemental and hateful creatures.

As they walked towards the village they found out that the country that had found had no name. That seemed strange, but it really didn't matter to Iris. All she wanted was to get Nami to the doctor and to get the hell off the island. She had no desire to stay around these humans and all this snow any longer than she absolutely had to.

As they continued walking Usopp started freaking out about a bear and collapsed into the snow to play dead, and Iris looked to see a giant bear walking towards them. Apparently it was a hiking bear, and it was harmless. As long as one was polite and minded their manners the bear would happily walk by them. They nodded their heads politely as the passed by the bear and the bear continued along its way.

By the time they got to the village Iris' feet were starting to go numb from all snow covering her feet every step of the way there. The villagers around them went on their own ways after the man leading them to the villages dismissed them all while the pirates and Vivi went to the man's house.

Once they were inside the house the man started a fire while Iris placed Nami in the bed. The man introduced himself as Dalton, and he was the protector of the village. He checked Nami's temperature, and unfortunately her fever was still continuing to rise.

Unfortunately, they found out, the doctor would not be accessed easily. She lived up on a mountain in in a castle that would not be easy to get to, and she was the lone doctor on the island. The doctor was called a witch by the people on the island, and there was no way to contact her. She came down to treat people whenever she felt like it, and she took whatever she wanted from their possessions as payment for her treatment. She apparently got down the mountain on a sleigh on moonlit nights that was pulled by some strange looking reindeer-like creature.

"Of all the islands out there we just had to come across an island with only one unreachable doctor..." Iris grumbled. Did this mean that they'd have to scale the strange looking mountain in search of the doctor?

"Strange creature?! I knew it! There are monsters!" Usopp started shouting. Before Iris could tell him to stop overreacting her attention was drawn to Luffy who was trying to wake up Nami.

"Oh, you're awake! Good. We're gonna have to hike up a mountain because that's where the only doctor is," Luffy said after Nami opened her eyes.

"Did you really need to wake her up?" Iris grumbled as she put her hand up to her temple and pressed on it to relieve the tension that was building from the stupidity of her captain. Even if they decided that they had to hike up the mountain with Nami to the doctor there was no need to wake Nami up.

"Are you crazy?! There's no way we can do that! What are you trying to put Nami through?!" Sanji shouted.

"I'll carry her so she'll be fine," Luffy responded calmly.

"Have you looked at that mountain?! It'll be impossible to climb!" Vivi exclaimed.

"I can climb it just fine," Luffy said.

"Just because you can climb it doesn't mean you should... I'm not sure Nami will be able to hold up being in the cold that long," Iris said.

"Iris is right. You need to think of Nami you damn idiot!" Sanji shouted.

"Stop yelling, Sanji. You're making too much noise," Iris snapped.

"Yes, Iris," Sanji cooed in response to her request.

"I don't think it's safe for you to take Nami there. What if you fell? Nami would die in an instant," Vivi said.

Luffy continued to say he could carry Nami up the mountain just fine, and Vivi continued to try and convince him otherwise. Iris was inclined to agree with Vivi's reasoning, but at the same time they were running short on time. How long would they have to wait for this doctor to come? If they wasted too much time waiting Nami could die from lack of treatment.

"I'll leave to you then, Luffy," Nami said in a quiet and labored tone, and everybody turned their attention to her. She had a weak smile on her face as if she was trying to convince them she'd be fine, even though they all knew otherwise. She was continuing to get worse instead of better, but if Nami was willing to make the trek up the mountain they might as well try rather than wait around for a doctor that might not show up in time.

Vivi continued to try and convince Luffy and now Nami that this was a horrible plan, but she wasn't succeeding. Since it looked like this was going to happen regardless of the hesitations they all had, Iris decided she might as well go along.

"Okay. I'll go too," Iris said.

"Me too," Sanji said.

They got Nami off of the bed and this time Luffy insisted that he be the one to carry Nami. Iris wasn't sure that she trusted him to be careful enough, but if she wasn't carrying Nami then she would get to fend off anything that might come at them. She'd rather be fighting anyway she supposed.

After making sure that Nami was tied securely to Luffy they were ready to go on their way. Vivi and Usopp decided they'd stay behind, and Dalton tried to give them some advice. He suggested that they take the route that went up the far side of the mountain to avoid some sort of rabbit creature he was calling a lapahn, but they weren't worried about rabbits.

"Let's get going. I'll deal with whatever creatures get in out way," Iris said as she started walking off towards the mountain. As they walked off towards the mountain Luffy stood in between her and Sanji, and Iris was watching their surroundings looking for anything suspicious or any sort of movement. She knew that Luffy would try to fight despite the fact that he was carrying Nami, and so she'd have to notice any sort of threat before he did so that she could react to it first.

They reached a forested area and walked in, and Iris tried her best to keep her focus on her surroundings. Her feet were starting to go numb again, and her hands were freezing without having any gloves on. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket; she wasn't going to be a wimp about the cold. Sanji and Luffy didn't seem to be too impacted by the cold, and there was no way in hell she would be the first to complain about the cold.

Luffy and Sanji were bickering between themselves, and Iris started to grow annoyed. She tried to keep her focus off of their conversation because she knew she really didn't have a reason to be annoyed by it, but that didn't change her annoyance. She was having a hard time finding something else to focus on until a rabbit-like creature appeared. If this was one of the lapahns that Dalton had mentioned it wasn't scary at all; he must not be very strong if he thought this was a vicious creature.

The rabbit was hopping around them growling and baring its teeth at them, and it was now annoying her even more than Luffy and Sanji were. When it hopped close enough to her she grabbed onto the scruff of its neck, and that really angered the creature. It started flailing around and making aggressive noises, and she threw it away from them.

"You're not too cold, are you Iris?" Sanji asked as the continued on their way.

"I'm fine," she responded.

Sanji started to say something more to her, but was stopped when she noticed something on the path in front of them and shushed him. She ran a few paces to see what was moving into the pathway they were taking and stopped when she saw rabbits standing upright on two feet that were significantly larger than a standard bear. Her jaw dropped in shock as she looked on at these creatures; this meant that the one she had tossed aside earlier must have only been a baby. She could understand why something this large could be considered scary.

One of them jumped at her with stunning velocity. It smashed its long arms into the ground with razor sharp claws right where the she had been standing before jumping out of its way. These creatures were strong and fast.

"What is that?!" Sanji shouted.

"They must be the lapahns that Dalton mentioned," Iris growled.

"It's a polar bear!" Luffy concluded.

"Luffy, let us handle this," Iris said as she stepped in front of Luffy.

"Why?" he asked.

"Your job right now is to protect Nami. Any impact from these things, even if you try and shield it from her, could kill her," Sanji said.

Iris stuck her hands down into the snow and was now glad that she was not wearing any gloves. Even with as cold as her hands were they were still warmer than the snow, and so when she grabbed a handful of snow it started to melt in her hands. She ran at the lapahn in front of her and shot the water from the melting snow at the lapahn's eyes. It screamed in pain, and she took the opportunity to plant her feet into its middle, run up towards its head, and kick it straight in the head. As it fell backwards she jumped off and landed back where she had started.

She looked to her right to see Sanji fending off a lapahn as well, and then back to Luffy to see that he was struggling to not join the fight. When she looked back to where the lapahns were she could see that more of them had come onto the scene. The lapahns had an advantage in the snow in that they could move completely normally in the snow, whereas her and Sanji weren't used to fighting in snow.

"Let's run towards the trees for cover," Sanji shouted, and she nodded in agreement. They would have a hard time fighting off all these lapahns while protecting Nami. The trees could make things easier, and with as big as the lapahns were they would probably have a harder time making their way through the trees.

They made a run for the forested area and the lapahns followed. As she ran she bent down and grabbed some more snow. Luffy kept looking back over his shoulder as they ran, and she could tell how hard it was for him not to join in on the fight right now. He had to leave the fighting to her and Sanji for Nami's sake; there really was no other option.

Iris then stopped running as Luffy and Sanji continued on and turned to face the lapahns running towards them. She shot the water from the melted snow off from all ten of her fingers up towards their faces, and then high tailed it out of there while the lapahns were momentarily stopped from the shock of her attack. Having an attack that could easily cause damage to multiple targets was convenient, though it only worked when she had access to water which made it a somewhat limited tactic.

She ran as fast as she could through the snow and caught up with Luffy and Sanji. The lapahns were following them again, and some had now appeared in front of them to block their path

"We can climb up over here!" Luffy shouted as he pointed towards the mountain. He jumped onto one of the lapins and used it as a springboard to jump to a higher point. She did the same, and Sanji quickly followed after kicking a few lapahns away.

They continued running, and the lapahns continued chasing. Then suddenly some lapahns that were above them started jumping up and down in place. The ground was shaking, and things seemed unsteady.

"No... They wouldn't..." Sanji murmured with his eyes growing wide.

"They wouldn't what?" Iris and Luffy asked in unison.

"Those damn rabbits... They're causing an avalanche!" Sanji shouted.

"An avalanche?" she asked not quite sure what that was, though she could tell from the tone in Sanji's voice and the expression on his face that it was a bad thing. She hadn't heard that term before, though she figured it was safe to assume that it had something to do with snow.

"Run, you two!" Sanji shouted as she watched an enormous amount of snow start to come crashing down towards them. That amount of snow would bury them alive for sure if they weren't able to get away from it.

Iris ran as fast as she could, but there was no way they would be able to outrun the disaster that was headed for them. Her brain was starting to panic, but she didn't have time to address the panic that was setting in. The only thing she could currently do was run and focus on how pissed off this situation made her.

Sanji then pointed out a cliff in the snow that stuck up higher than the surrounding areas and suggested that they run up there. That seemed like a better plan than out running the avalanche, and so they all ran for the cliff. They were safe for a moment, but unfortunately the snow plowing towards them got thicker and became taller than the cliff they were on.

They were swept off the cliff, and Iris fought to stay above the snow. She looked to see where Luffy was with Nami afraid of the worst, but was surprised to see Luffy riding a tree in a manor that looked like surfing towards her. He grabbed onto her hand and pulled her out of the snow and onto the tree. She wrapped her arms around Nami and grabbed onto Luffy's shoulders as Luffy pulled Sanji up onto the tree as well.

Iris could feel that Nami was still breathing, and that was a relief, but that wasn't enough to stop the anger that had begun to grown in Iris. They were being taken back down the mountain they had been climbing up, they were in a dangerous situation that could very easily kill Nami, and there was no way they could stop themselves. She'd make sure that these stupid lapahns paid for what they had done.

Iris then saw something that pissed her off further, and that anger pushed any sort of nervousness in her out. The lapahns were surfing down the avalanche on their large feet and growling, snapping their teeth, and swinging their large clawed arms at them as they surfed by.

Just when Iris thought the situation couldn't get any worse, she noticed they were headed towards another cliff that had some tree stumps on it that they were headed straight for. If they crashed into the tree stumps they'd be thrown off of the tree they were riding on for sure and be buried in the snow.

Before she was able to react Sanji grabbed onto Luffy and pushed him, with Nami attached to him and Iris still holding onto him, off of the tree. Iris called out his name in a panic as he crashed into the cliff and the tress, and was thrown off the tree that they had been riding on.

Her body hit the snow and she let go of Luffy, and as she was getting carried by the snow she was able to grab onto one of the stumps at the edge of the cliff and hold onto it to prevent herself from being carried with the snow and getting buried alive. Luffy stretched out his arm to try and grab onto Sanji as he held onto one of the stumps with the other, but when he pulled his arm back he only had one of Sanji's gloves in his hand.

"That idiot... How could he do that?!" she shouted in anger. Even if it was the only thing he could think of to save them he was an idiot for doing it. She was angry that he would try and sacrifice himself like that; did he not value his own life? She was going to let go of the stump and go find him, but Luffy stopped her. When she looked to Luffy to tell him not to stop her, she saw a concerned look on Luffy's face and didn't say anything. Luffy was probably more concerned than she was about Sanji, and it would be wrong of her to do something that would cause him to worry about her as well.

When the snow had slowed to where it would be safe to go look for Sanji she let go of the stump and dropped to the snow beneath her. It was somewhat surprising to her how hard the snow was when she fell into it from a distance; it seemed to soft and fluffy as they walked in it. She shouldn't be surprised though, she knew the same theory applied to water. The higher you fell into water from the more water felt like solid ground as your body impacted it.

"Luffy! I'm going to go find Sanji!" she shouted up to Luffy as he pulled himself and Nami up onto the cliff.

"No, I'll do it!" he shouted back.

"No, you should head back up the mountain to the doctor. We lost a lot of ground in that stupid avalanche," she called out as she started to run down the mountain further. She was having a hard time keeping up a decent pace in all this freshly moved snow that caused her legs to sink into it, but she knew that every moment longer it took to get to Sanji put his life in further damage.

The further down the mountain she had to go the more worried she became. She still couldn't believe he would sacrifice himself like that for them. He had better have survived this somehow, or she'd never forgive him.

Finally, after what felt like miles of searching, she could see some blonde hair sticking out of the snow ahead of her. She called out his name and ran as fast as she could towards him. She dropped to her knees and started digging him out of the snow; she never thought she'd be so happy to see Sanji. His body was freezing cold and he was unconscious, but he was still breathing. The doctor would now have two patients to treat.

Once she had gotten him pulled out of the snow she tried to figure out the best way to carry him back up the mountain. She'd have to make good time to catch up to Luffy, and she would have to be able to fight if a lapahn came at her again. She finally decided that her best option was to carry him on her back like Luffy was doing with Nami, and use her jacket to try and secure him to her.

She took off her jacket and was immediately assaulted by the below freezing temperatures, but she didn't have time to worry about that. She managed to get Sanji up on her back with his arms draping over her shoulders and his head resting right next to hers, and then balanced him with one arm while trying to tie her jacket around the both of them.

Once she had succeeded in securing him to herself she started her way back up the mountain. His normally strong body was limp as she carried him, and he seemed to be getting colder with every step. He smelled like fresh tobacco and spices, and while that wasn't surprising with him being a smoker and a cook she hadn't ever gotten close enough to him to notice it. He smelled kind of nice, though she'd never admit that to a living soul.

"You're such an idiot... You had better hold out until I can get you to a doctor..." she grumbled as she continued climbing upward.

She got back to where she lad left Luffy and Nami, and they were nowhere to be seen. Hopefully they hadn't encountered anything that Luffy would have to fight against and were doing alright. She hoped that she wouldn't encounter anything either. Sanji should be able to withstand her fighting significantly more than Nami would, but she didn't really want to do anything that might make his injuries worse.

The cold was now really starting to get to her. Her upper body was completely exposed to the freezing temperatures and cold with only her crop top to protect her, and her arms were practically frozen in place as she held up Sanji's legs. Her teeth were chattering and her body was shivering, and her numb feet were now the least of her worries. How Luffy had been able to walk around in the snow in his sandals was beyond her.

Finally she could see people up in front of her; she had caught up to Luffy! She hoped that he hadn't been walking at too slow of a pace to allow her to catch up to him, but she was glad to see him all the same. He'd be glad to see Sanji.

She picked up her pace to and noticed that Luffy had stopped walking. He was bent over something, and then pulled a giant lapahn out of the snow. Why would he help one of the very creatures that had just been trying to kill them? The lapahns were to blame for them losing time by being blown back down the mountain, and they were to blame for Sanji being in the state he was in.

"Luffy?! What the hell are you doing?! What if it tries to attack us again?" she shouted as she ran up to him. He looked over his shoulder at her, but didn't respond. His lack of response ticked her off somewhat, but she bit her tongue. If the captain was choosing to save the awful creature it really wasn't her place to tell him not to. Even with the respect she had for him it was still hard not to tell him off sometimes, and now was definitely one of those times.

She walked alongside him in silence for a bit. He finally made a comment about being glad that she found Sanji, but it was obvious that his attention was solely focused on getting to the doctor. He had taken off his jacket like she had, but his was wrapped around Nami. She could probably use the extra protection from the weather, but that meant that Luffy had to be as miserably cold if not more so than she was.

They continued walking in silence. Iris wasn't an overly chatty person and so silence was fine for her, but the silence was making it hard to focus on anything other than how cold she was. She was trying to keep her brain focused on getting to see the doctor, but when her body was having to spend all its energy to keep her muscles moving in this cold it was hard to maintain her focus.

Once again she could see some people in front of her. Was it perhaps the doctor? There was a strange creature she couldn't identify, and Dalton had mentioned a strange reindeer creature. The thing in front of them didn't look like a reindeer, but that didn't seem to mean anything in the Grand Line. There were an abundance of strange creatures here.

As they walked closer she could see that it was the man that had boarded their ship yesterday that they had fought off. Anger started coursing through her body, but she knew they couldn't afford to get into a fight right now. Nami's body definitely couldn't handle it, and she didn't want to put stress on Sanji any more than she absolutely had to. At least if nothing else her anger served to warm up her body a bit.

The man started yelling at them, Luffy in particular, but they kept walking. That served to piss off the man further, and he shouted something about making a new law about killing people that turned their back on the king. This man was a king? She'd hate to live in a country that was governed by an arrogant prick like him.

One of the two men with the king jumped off the creature and threw a punch at Luffy. Luffy jumped out of the way and landed with a thud, and his eyes widened; he must have remembered that even a small impact could harm Nami. So instead he took to running away, and she ran after him.

She looked back over her shoulder just in time to see the other man with the king firing off some arrows towards them. She stopped running while instructing Luffy to continue running, and she kicked up her foot to block the arrows. As her foot struck the arrows they were broken in half and fell to the ground, and she took off running again to catch up to Luffy.

She murmured a sorry to an unconscious Sanji for the impact he may have felt, and quickly caught up to Luffy. They ran as quickly as they could towards the mountain when things around them went quiet. She looked around and didn't see the enemies any longer. It was impossible to vanish into thin air which meant they were around somewhere, but she couldn't tell where.

Suddenly the king appeared out of the snow in front of them which his disgustingly large mouth wide open trying to eat them. Both her and Luffy jumped out of the way, and the other two people suddenly appeared out of the snow jumping straight towards them. There really was no way to dodge both of these people mid jump while they held injured people, but Iris started wracking her brain to find a solution.

Before they were forced to find a solution some lapahns came to their aid. One of the lapahns was the one that Luffy had saved earlier. Luffy called out a thank you to the lapahns and they both took off running as fast as they could to get out of the situation. Iris hoped that Nami wasn't being hurt too much from the running, but it was their best option at the moment.

When they finally made it to the mountain to climb up, both Iris and Luffy were covered in snow and shivering. She was moving forward out of sheer willpower at this point; her body would have given up long before now if she hadn't had a strong reason for moving forward. She was afraid of Sanji's body temperature dropping further, and knew she'd have to climb quickly.

The mountain in front of them didn't look like it would be easy to scale. It was tall enough she couldn't see the top, and it went straight up. Climbing this mountain would make even the most difficult rock climbing courses look easy. The ledges she'd have to grab onto were small and covered in ice, which meant her fingers would have to dig into the ice to be able to get a grip.

She looked over to Luffy, and when their eyes locked he nodded at her in determination. Not reaching the top of the mountain wasn't an option for either of them. Luffy kicked off his sandals as they would impede his climbing, and they both started the long and difficult climb up the mountain.

"Just a little bit longer Sanji," she whispered. She knew he was unconscious and couldn't hear her, but she continued to update him on how close they were getting to the doctor anyway. Talking to him seemed to keep her focused.

As she climbed her muscles were shaking from the stress of climbing up such a difficult terrain, and the cold that was trying to force her body to shut down. Her fingers were bleeding, as were her knees from scraping the mountain as she climbed. The snow was coming down harder than it had been before too.

She glanced over to Luffy who was also bleeding, and saw a look of absolute determination on his face. He was as miserable as she was, but he wasn't letting himself focus on that. He was a prime example of somebody who would always put other people's needs ahead of his own. His actions and attitude right now made her respect him even more than she already did. She was also doing her best to put Sanji's needs above her own, but it was much more difficult for her than it was for Luffy in such deplorable conditions. Luffy truly made her want to be a better person.

"We're almost there, Sanji, I can see the top. I think..." she said. The snow was thick and she couldn't be sure, but she thought she could see it. By the time they reached the top she very well might need medical treatment as well for the bleeding and possibly frostbite, but that would be fine as long as she made it to the top.

"I'm gonna kick your butt once you're better, Sanji... That'll teach you never to do something so foolish again, " she mumbled as she finally reached the top. She pulled herself up onto the flat ground and started crawling towards the castle that was in front of her. Every muscle in her body was trembling, but after making it this far she couldn't pass out now. If she passed out now she might die out here in the cold, and that wasn't an option.

Her vision started blacking out, and her ears were ringing. She started trying to think of all the things that motivated her to keep going: rescuing and getting to see her dad again, getting Sanji to the doctor, getting back to her friends, making sure Vivi got to Alabasta, and getting to spend more time with Zoro.

The thought of dying out here and not getting to see Zoro again was a bigger motivation for her than she felt it should be considering that he wasn't interested in pursuing any sort of romantic relationship with her, but at this point she wasn't going to beat herself up over that. Whatever motivation she could muster up would be a good thing, even if she was stupid for being motivated by it.

At this point she was crawling blindly since her vision had completely blacked out, and she'd have to rely on feeling vibrations through the snow to know if something was coming towards her since the ringing in her ears was so overpowering that she couldn't hear anything else. She hoped that Luffy was in a better state than she was and was continuing towards the castle.

Her body finally gave out beneath her and she felt her arms collapsing in. She could feel her body sinking into the snow and hoped that she had been able fall down in a way that Sanji hadn't been hurt by it. She weakly cried out for help before passing out completely hoping that somebody might somehow hear her.


	20. Chapter 20

When Iris regained consciousness she was in a room she didn't recognize. She sat up and her and started to panic at now knowing where she was, how she had gotten there, or what had happened to the others. How could she have let herself lose consciousness like that? She should have had enough will power to stay awake until she knew everybody was going to be okay.

Her panic started to subside a bit when she looked around and saw Luffy and Sanji sleeping in beds near her. Were they in the castle? Did that mean that the doctor had found them? Where was Nami?

She looked to her hands and saw that they were bandaged up, and she immediately tore the bandages off because of how uncomfortable they were on the webbing between her fingers. Her leggings had also been pushed up past her knees so that bandages could be wrapped around them; she left those bandages on since they weren't bugging her too much, and then pulled the legs of her pants back down over the bandages.

She swung her feet off of the bed and got up. She was still somewhat light headed, but nothing she couldn't deal with. Her body temperature seemed to be back to normal, and everything seemed to be working just how it should. All she could think about was checking on the boys and find Nami.

She looked over to Luffy and saw him snoring loudly. He was sleeping peacefully and had a pleasant look on his face like nothing had happened. It was amazing to her how well he rebounded from things. Both him and Zoro seemed to heal ridiculously fast from whatever injuries they received. She still hoped that that ability might rub off on her at some point.

She walked over to Sanji's bedside and saw him sleeping soundly. His face was somewhat pained, but he seemed fine enough considering he had been buried in an avalanche not too much earlier. She assumed it hadn't been too long that they had been there at least; she really couldn't tell how long they had been passed out for though.

Her attention was diverted, however, when she could hear somebody walking towards the room. She looked at the doorway and the creature she saw walking through the door was not what she had expected. She had expected to see a human, but instead she saw what she assumed was the reindeer-like creature that Dalton had mentioned.

"Hi there," she said as she crouched down to be on eye level with the creature. He had a startled look in his eyes, but he was super cute. He was cute and cuddly looking not completely unlike a teddy bear. If the reindeer was here they must be at the doctor's castle.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you," she said as the reindeer hid behind the door, and she couldn't help but laugh. His body was sticking out while he hid his face and was completely visible. It was as if he thought because he couldn't see her that she couldn't see him despite most of his body being completely visible.

Her talking must have woken up the boys, because she could hear some movement behind her. She looked back to see Luffy sitting up in bed and Sanji trying to get up as well. Luffy was probably fine enough to be moving around, but she wasn't so sure about Sanji. He had to have some fairly gnarly injuries.

"Don't you dare get up," she scolded Sanji as she stood back up and walked to his bedside.

"I'm fine..." he said, but the pained look on his face said otherwise.

"Like hell you are. I'm not letting you hurt yourself further after having to carry your unconscious and injured ass all the way up that mountain. That was a lot of stinking work," she said.

"You carried me up? You'd help me like that?" he asked as his eyes widened.

"Yeah. I'm not heartless ya know. Since we're crew mates and all I couldn't just leave you behind..." she said.

"I didn't mean that you were! But I feel kind of bad that I burdened you with that... I mean... Thank you!" he said with a big grin, and she felt her face turning red. She knew that he'd find out it was her that had carried him up the mountain, but that didn't change the fact that she felt weird about it. Up until now she had stubbornly refused to deal with him any more than she had absolutely had to, and now she had carried the man up a difficult mountainside and would have done just about anything in her power to make sure he got to the doctor for treatment.

"Yeah... Well don't you dare do something that stupid ever again. I'll beat you senseless if you even think about doing something like that again," she grumbled.

"Okay!" he responded. He still had a big grin on his face as if she hadn't just threatened to beat him up. He was such a strange man. He was probably happy that she had rescued him from the avalanche because it meant that she didn't hate him as much as everyone seemed to think. She still felt weird about the whole thing. She felt a fondness growing in her heart towards him, but she'd never admit it. She didn't even want to admit it to herself that she might be starting to care for the cook.

"Look guys... I see some meat!" Luffy shouted.

Iris looked at Luffy and saw him pointing at the reindeer. The poor creature looked beyond terrified and immediately started running away. Luffy hopped out of the bed and started running after the reindeer, while Sanji tried to get out of bed as well. Iris smacked him lightly on the head trying not to hurt him further and told him not to get out of bed.

"But that thing looked like a reindeer... Kind of... I bet it would make a good stew!" he whined.

"It isn't for eating. I think that's the doctor's pet. You stay here and rest; I'm gonna go stop Luffy from harming the poor animal," she said and left the room. She took off running down the hallway towards Luffy's voice.

By the time she had caught up with him the poor reindeer looked like it was about to have a heart attack, and Luffy was chasing it into a room. She yelled at Luffy to stop, but he didn't seem to hear her. She picked up her pace and grabbed onto the collar of his vest to stop him.

"Knock it off, you idiot! Leave the poor creature alone!" she said as she smacked him on the side of the head.

"But I want some meat! I'm hungry!" he whined as he rubbed the spot on his head that she had hit.

Iris was about to continue lecturing him, but noticed that Nami was sitting up in a bed a few feet away from her and an old lady that she assumed was the doctor was right next to Nami. If she recalled right she had heard Dalton say something about the doctor being like 140 years old, and Iris was impressed with the woman in front of her. The woman's face looked old, but not that old and her body was in great shape. Iris never would have guessed this woman could possibly be 140 years old. 70 maybe, but not anything older.

"Nami! You're okay!" Iris said and let go of Luffy's vest. She walked quickly to Nami who looked immensely better than she had, and turned to the old woman and thanked her. They had made it to the doctor in time to save Nami; all of their effort to climb this mountain had been worth it.

"She's not okay yet girlie. She is still sick until I'm done treating her," the woman said.

"Nami! You're awake! I'm so glad!" Iris heard a voice say and turned to see Sanji walking their way.

"I thought I told you to finish letting your body heal..." Iris growled, and she started walking towards him. Luffy was wrestling with the reindeer, and as soon as Sanji saw it he joined in. Before Iris was able to pull the two boys away from the reindeer the reindeer transformed into a quite large and more human-like looking creature.

The reindeer hit both of the boys with his fist, and then transformed back into the smaller and cuter creature that it had been moments ago and ran off. The doctor seemed somewhat amused by the situation and laughed as the reindeer ran away as fast as it could.

"Girl, you're not all human, are you?" the doctor asked.

"My name is Iris... Not 'girl'. And no, I'm half fishman. Who are you?," Iris responded.

"You're not very polite, are you? It's rude to blurt out questions like that to the person that just saved all of your lives. I've never come across a half fishman before... I didn't figure humans and fishmen could get along well enough to breed with each other," the doctor said as she walked out of the room after Luffy and Sanji who had chased after the reindeer again while mumbling about her name being Dr. Kureha.

Iris was somewhat shocked to hear not even a little malice in the doctor's voice as she mentioned fishmen. If anything the doctor genuinely seemed surprised to hear of a human and a fishman procreating. Iris couldn't blame the doctor for being surprised about that either; it was an extremely abnormal thing.

"They're hopeless, aren't they?" Nami asked with a laugh after the doctor had left. Iris sat down on the edge of the bed with a sign and agreed with Nami. Iris asked Nami if she knew more information on the reindeer, and apparently it had been a normal reindeer at one point but accidentally ate the human-human fruit. Iris had no idea that animals could eat devil fruits, or that there were devil fruits that could make one transform like the reindeer did. There was still so much that she had to learn.

She also found out from Nami that they all had had fairly serious injuries when the reindeer found them. Nami had a bacterial infection from a bug bite that would have killed her had she remained untreated for another two days. Luffy had a serious case of frostbite, and Iris did as well; both of their body temperatures had fallen significantly beneath what was considered safe. Sanji had a bunch of broken ribs, and some cracked vertebrae in his spine in addition to frost bite.

Any normal people wouldn't be up and walking around so quickly, but they definitely weren't normal people by any stretch of imagination. Still, the fact that they all had taken some serious damage in their hike to the castle and were moving around so easily was baffling to her. She knew her body was well trained and strong, but she didn't realize how much of a beating it could take and still be fine. The injuries she had received climbing the mountain were nothing compared to the number Arlong did to her, though. So perhaps she shouldn't be so surprised that her body could handle this.

Nami was curious what had happened to Sanji that caused him to break a bunch of bones rather than to just get frost bite like they had, and so Iris explained about the avalanche. Nami seemed surprised to hear about the troubles they had on their way to the doctor, but the thing that seemed to surprise her the most was that Iris had been the one to rescue and carry Sanji up the mountain.

"You did that?" Nami asked.

"I'm not some heartless bitch like you all seem to think," Iris grumbled.

"Well that's good, I suppose," Nami said with a laugh, and tried to stop laughing when Iris glared at her. "Oh come on, I'm just joking," she continued. While Iris figured that Nami probably didn't really think that Iris was completely heartless it didn't change that she felt like it was implied. She didn't realize that she came across quite so uncaring to the others, and it kind of hurt to realize it.

"How much longer until you're better and we can leave?" Iris asked changing the subject.

"The doctor says three days, but we don't have three days to spare. We need to get Vivi to Alabasta as quickly as possible," Nami responded.

Iris nodded her head and stood back up off the bed. She excused her self from the room and said she was going to go find the boys. While she was glad that Nami was getting better she couldn't help but be annoyed. Why did everybody seem to think she was mean enough that she'd leave Sanji behind? Even if he hadn't have been trying to save them and had simply fallen off the tree they had been on she would have went back for him.

Thinking about how the others perceived her made her realize that she should try harder to be a bit friendlier. She thought it should be obvious that she cared for them all since she was much more open with them than she was in the beginning, but apparently it wasn't as obvious as she thought. She wasn't sure how to work on that, but she'd have to find a way.

These humans all, and that included Sanji now, meant a lot to her. She didn't want them to doubt how she felt, and she had a feeling that would mean she'd have to really leave her comfort zone. Expressing her feelings and being caring towards others was not something that came naturally to her.

As she walked towards the noises she could hear she realized it was getting colder, but she didn't know how to find her way back to the room she had woken up in was to get her jacket that had been left next to the bed. The castle was huge, and there were a bazillion rooms and hallways that she would have to try. So instead, she kept walking towards the ground floor where she could hear some sort of commotion.

When she got down to the bottom floor she could see the floor was covered in snow. The front door was wide open, and so snow and cold air was flowing in freely. She walked through the snow and found that the reindeer was again in the large human-like form and glaring down Luffy.

"What did you do to him now?" she asked Luffy as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I didn't do anything!" Luffy whined.

"Look over here..." Sanji said as he pointed to the top of the door. She looked and saw a bird's nest with baby birds in it. Apparently Luffy had been trying to shut the door even though the reindeer was telling him not to do so. If Luffy had shut the door it would have killed the baby birds.

"Wait... Did you just say the reindeer told Luffy not to do something? He can talk?" Iris asked as she looked around for the reindeer, but he was gone now. She was curious about the creature, and curious about what the doctor had mentioned about the reindeer perhaps liking her better than the others because she wasn't all human. Did that mean the reindeer had problems with humans too?

"Yeah, isn't it cool?! He should join our crew!" Luffy shouted and started running to go find the reindeer. She called out for Luffy to leave the poor animal alone, but he was already long gone. Sanji started to chase after the reindeer as well, but she stopped him.

"Would you please leave the poor thing alone?!" she asked in an annoyed tone.

"Luffy's already after it... What's the big deal?" Sanji asked.

"The reindeer doesn't like humans, and you guys chasing it around aren't help change its mind. As somebody who has spent most of her life hating humans trust me when I say to leave him alone," she stated as she turned to walk back upstairs.

"Aren't you cold?" Sanji asked her as he joined in walking up the stairs. She was tempted to be stubborn and say that she wasn't, but she didn't didn't have the will to lie at the moment. She didn't know if it was because of the frost bite she had suffered, but the cold seemed to be penetrating her even more than it should be. She nodded her head yes and he suggested that they go find their jackets. She assumed that meant he remembered how to find the room they had all been in, and so she let him lead the way there.

She glanced at Sanji out of the corner of her eye as they were walking, and she noticed he had a very content look on his face. It would be a fair assumption that he looked happy because she was being friendlier to him than she had been in the past. Even if she felt awkward being nice to the guy she would have to get over that; she was tired of people thinking she was a bitch. If she could be nice to him that would surely prove that she was nicer than they gave her credit for.

"I'm sorry I put you through all of that. I shouldn't have put myself in a position where you'd have to injure yourself for me," Sanji finally said after walking in silence for awhile. His voice sounded quite upset and she found it a bit pathetic. He had no need to be sorry that she had to exert some effort on his sake, but he should be sorry for being willing to sacrifice himself so easily.

"Your actions probably saved Nami's life, so I'll forgive you this once. Don't do it again. And don't place so little value on your life to think you're a suitable sacrifice for anybody else," she responded.

When he didn't respond to her comment she glanced over to him to try and figure out what he was thinking. Was he really feeling that much guilt over her carrying him up the mountain? She was a little surprised to see that he actually looked quite happy. He had a slight grin on his face and his eyes had a joyful spark in them.

"I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. I would have thought you'd happily let me sacrifice myself for you guys," he finally said.

"Yeah... Well don't you go telling the others I was nice to you," she retorted. She could feel her face turning red and immediately looked away from him. She knew she shouldn't be embarrassed for being nice to him, but that stubbornness in her heart wouldn't let her acknowledge him so easily. Learning to interact with him pleasantly would require baby steps on both of their parts. He should know that though from their previous conversations.

"Don't worry, I won't," he said. He still had that stupid grin on his face, but he was handling this situation better than she had thought he would. She had imagined as she scaled up the mountain that he would be a lot more obnoxious than he was actually being. She had figured that he would have been much more excited about how physically close their bodies had been, but he hadn't brought that up at all so far. Either the thought hadn't occurred to him, which she doubted, or he was smart enough to know that would piss her off. Either way she was grateful that he wasn't being as obnoxious about the incident as she had predicted.

She continued walking with him without either of them saying much, and they finally got to the room where they had all woken up in. She quickly ran to the bed she had been passed out in and found her jacket. It was folded nicely at the foot of the bed, and she immediately picked up the jacket and put it on zipping it all the way up. If she never came across another snowy island it would be too soon she decided; she much preferred weather that she didn't have to wear a jacket it

The bed looked comforting with as tired as her body still was. She had thought she was more or less fully recovered, but her body was now aching for a rest. She couldn't rest until they were back on the Merry and they were on their way to Alabasta. For now she'd have to ignore the sleepiness that was aching throughout her body.

While Sanji was busy putting on his coat she decided it wouldn't hurt to sit for a moment, and so she sat on the edge of the bed. Her mind wandered to the others and what they might be doing currently. Hopefully Usopp and Vivi were in the village with Dalton safe and sound. She hoped that Zoro was still on the boat training and not out getting lost somewhere. That man had quite the talent for getting lost. He probably shouldn't have been left by himself because she figured the chances of him staying on the boat were slim to none.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard some commotion again coming from downstairs. Sanji obviously heard it too, and they both took off running down the stairs and towards the noise.

She got downstairs just in time to see Luffy stretching out his arm and hitting the king that they had run into earlier. Dr. Kureha and the reindeer were outside too, as well as the two people that had been with the king. This meant that they had beaten all the lapahns that had let her and Luffy run ahead.

"What are those guys doing here?" Sanji asked.

"I think he might be the king of this country... He probably wants his castle back." Iris answered as she ran outside as she wondered why he had left the castle to sail the seas in the first place. It also seemed strange that he left his country without knowing how to get back.

The king went flying over a cliff's edge as Luffy hit him and the two men with him went chasing after him. Luffy had a proud look on his face as he watched the king's minions scrambling to save him. Dr. Kureha and reindeer seemed surprised by Luffy's stretching arm, and that seemed somewhat humorous to her since they seemed to think a talking and transforming reindeer was copletely normal.

The king was caught by his men, and then brought him back to where they were. Luffy was taunting them and making faces at them like a child would, and promising to beat them up this time.

Iris turned her attention to the reindeer who was still looking at Luffy in shock. She was curious what humans had done to him to make him dislike them, but she wasn't sure how to ask without blurting it out plainly. She imagined it was some sort of discrimination; humans were always discriminating against things different than themselves.

"He's pretty impressive, isn't he?" she asked the reindeer.

"How did he do that?" the reindeer asked.

"He's a rubber man. Quite the monster, isn't he?" she asked, and the reindeer nodded its head.

"Aren't you cold?" Sanji asked Luffy, and Luffy suddenly realized it was cold outside. She couldn't help but laugh as Luffy ran inside frantically to find a coat. How he could forget it was cold outside for even a second was beyond her, especially after the long and cold trek her and him had just made up the mountain.

The king started yelling something about eating all of them and about how the doctor was stupid for taking over his castle, and Iris sighed as her attention was drawn back to the lousy king. This guy didn't seem like somebody that they couldn't handle; he was an idiot if he thought he was stronger than them.

Iris then found out that apparently the doctor had no interest in the castle, but the reindeer did. She said something about a fake doctor who had died and the castle being his gave, and how the reindeer wouldn't leave.

Iris watched as the reindeer transformed into the large human-like form again. He had a pissed off glare on his face and stated that the king and his men would never set foot in the castle again. His words and tone were firm, and she couldn't help but wonder what had happened there. Now, obviously, wasn't the time to ask that.

The men that were with the king said something about a monster and she figured they were talking about the reindeer. They had a look of disgust and contempt on their faces as they looked at him, and she understood immediately what the reindeer felt. She had seen that look time after time directed at her dad growing up. A fierce temper flared up inside of her, and she knew that she had to beat the crap out of these humans for their appalling disrespectful and discriminatory views.

"Don't worry, we'll help you protect this place," she growled as she stepped up in front of the reindeer. "I _hate_ humans like them. You don't have to fight this fight alone any longer," she hissed as she looked at the men.. The reindeer seemed surprised by her anger at these humans, but he didn't question her.

"If Iris is fighting I'll be fighting along side her," Sanji said as he stepped up next to her and lit a cigarette.

One of the humans with the king started running at them and made it known that his target was the doctor. He threw what looked like an afro ball straight for her, but Sanji blocked it with a kick while commenting on how men shouldn't try and harm ladies.

When Sanji tried to kick the ball off of his leg it refused to budge, and while he was distracted the man threw a few more at Sanji. Sanji seemed frustrated and called out for the reindeer to help him out. Iris heard the man say something about static with a laugh, and that would mean water should dissipate the charge.

She called out to Sanji and told him to stand still for a moment while she picked up some snow and let it melt in her hands. She shot the water through the balls and watched as they fell off of him. Static was an awfully stupid trick to use in a country that was covered in solid water; it would be better suited for a dry and arid environment.

"What did you just do?!" the static man asked as he glared at her.

"I got rid of the static with water. It's a pretty basic concept," she responded. She could tell by the look on the man's face that he wasn't asking about how the static was diffused, and she laughed. "I'm a fishman, if that answers your question better," she continued. She grinned to reveal her teeth and held up her hands to show the webbing between her fingers.

"A fishman?! What a disgusting creature like that doing in my country?!" the king roared.

Anger was already coursing through her body from their attitudes towards the reindeer, and now the king's reaction to her race was making it so that she couldn't control her anger. She honestly had expected a reaction like that from mentioning her race, but that didn't stop her from seeing red. She was doing her best to not snap and to maintain full control of herself, though it was proving difficult while dealing with these racist assholes.

She ran at the man in the jester suit as he held up his bow and arrows to shoot at them, and planted her fist straight into his face. While he was still in the process of reacting to her attack she squatted down and kicked out her foot to swing it around and knock him to the ground.

She stood back up to continue her attack, but was pushed out of the way by the reindeer. Before she could yell at him for getting in the way the king pushed the jester to the side and opened his big mouth and chomped down on the reindeer.

Watching the vulgar and racist king bite down around the reindeer was the last straw, and she snapped. Her anger was boiling over now, and that anger was now controlling her actions. She immediately kicked her knee into the king's middle with all the strength in her body, and the king spit the reindeer out from the force of her attack.

She them started repeatedly punching him in the middle as hard as she could. Her anger built with ever punch, and it wouldn't be satisfied until he was dead. The longer her attack lasted the further her consciousness drifted; a monster that dwelled inside her was taking over her mind and body without her being fully aware it was happening.

"Iris! Move out of the way!" a voice yelled that snapped her out of the state she was in. She realized the voice belonged to Sanji as her consciousness started to return, and was glad that he had called out to her and prevented the monster from continuing its rampage.

As her mind and body started to calm down and return to normal she glanced over her shoulder to see Luffy grabbing onto Sanji's leg. She assumed that Luffy was going to launch himself off of Sanji's leg as Sanji kicked Luffy towards the king. She jumped to the side just in time to watch Luffy slam into the king, and the king go flying off.

The jester and static guy ran after the king, and she just watched them run off. Normally she would take off after them to not let them get away, but right now she needed to focus her attention on not letting her temper get the best of her again. It was troublesome that she had snapped like that twice now.

"Thank you for saving me. And... Umm... Did you say you're a fishman? So you're not a human?" she heard a small voice ask and she looked down to see the reindeer standing next to her transformed back into the smaller state. His eyes were big and questioning as he looked up at her.

"Yeah, I'm a fishman. I'm half fishman and half human. I'm all monster though," she answered with a big toothy grin. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was happy to be around somebody who wasn't a human, or at least all human. Humans had hurt this poor creature, and she understood all too well his dislike of humans. The problem was, as she found out when she met the Arlong Pirates, was that other groups are hateful as well. She guessed that he didn't fit in with reindeer either or he wouldn't be with the doctor now.

"You're okay with being a monster?" he asked.

"Yep. I take pride in it," she replied. Well, at least she was proud of the "monster" she was considered for being a fishman. She wasn't so proud of the monster that had almost escaped moments ago, but that wasn't something anybody else needed to know about right now. He seemed impressed that she was okay with being a monster, though, and so she'd run with that right now.

"That's so cool..." he said quietly.

Their conversation stopped with Sanji ran up next to her see if she was okay and she nodded her head yes. He had a concerned look on his face, and she guessed he had seen that something had been off with her when she snapped a few moments earlier. His eyes were questioning her, but he didn't ask her anything further.

Honestly that side of her scared her a little bit. It was something that had never happened before the other day at Little Garden, and it had now happened twice within a couple of days. It was worrisome to say the least, and she would have to find a way to fight that from happening again. It seemed dangerous to have her anger take over her consciousness like that.

She could hear the king shouting off in the distance about something or another, and she could tell that he was angry. The jester started spouting off things that the king had eaten that day, and it was a strange list of things to say the least. The king had eaten a bunch of cannons and gunpowder, as well as a restaurant if the jester was telling the truth.

The king's body started shifting and growing larger and took on the shape of a house complete with a door and windows. It was a bizarre sight, though Luffy seemed somewhat impressed. The king then bent over and started eating the jester and the static guy. Iris was completely grossed out by the action, while the boys seemed more surprised.

The two men then walked out of a door that was in the middle of the king's body, and it was obvious that they were stacked on each other. Luffy seemed impressed once again, though neither her or Sanji were buying into the trick. There was nothing intimidating about these pathetic people.

"You had better not underestimate them. There's a reason they haven't been over thrown by the people; if they were weak do you think people would have quietly let this tyrant rule over them without some sort of push back?" the doctor said.

She mad a valid point, but Iris still couldn't take these people seriously. The jester and the static guy were nothing she couldn't handle on her own. The king didn't seem much better, though his devil fruit abilities could prove to be an issue if there was more to them than she could see. Between Luffy, Sanji, and her they should be able to handle these people. Luffy on his own could more than likely handle all three of them.

"The first rule of Drum Country is that whoever goes against the king must die. This empire belongs to me, and so does this castle! I will not allow anybody to deface my castle by putting up the flag of some fake doctor!" the king yelled and shot out a cannonball out of his arm.

Iris looked up to see what appeared to be a pirate flag up at the top of the castle just before the cannonball hit the pole it was on. She then looked to the reindeer to see a look on his face that was somewhere between shock and rage. He screamed out about the flag, and then started running towards the king and his men.

He ran between the legs of the jester, and then transformed in his larger form as he ran for the king. When he got to the king he jumped up and looked as if he was going to punch the king in the face, but then stopped.

"I won't hurt you, so just get out of this country now!" he yelled. Dr. Kureha started screaming at the reindeer about how foolish he was being, and Iris couldn't help but agree with the doctor. People like them wouldn't give up or leave without a fight. The reindeer was now just putting himself in danger; he should have attacked when he had the chance.

His leniency was wasted on the king, and the king shot a cannonball at the reindeer. The cannonball was shot at a point blank range, and Iris figured the reindeer would probably die from the shot. As anger started skyrocketing through her body once again, she tried to maintain her focus so that she wouldn't snap again. Unless she could control that rage she didn't want it to happen again. She needed to react with an emotion other than anger right now.

"Hey you! Big blabbering mouth!" Luffy shouted from a distance.

Iris looked around and found that Luffy was nowhere near them. Her eyes finally spotted him and saw him standing at the top of the castle tying the flag back into place with what appeared to be the torn off sleeve of Nami's jacket that he was now wearing. His actions helped calm her anger enough that she was no longer worried about snapping; Luffy wouldn't let the king get away with his actions.

"You guys are a bunch of frauds! You became pirates without being willing to risk your lives! You will never understand the importance of this flag!" Luffy shouted. The anger she felt was now giving way to the pride and admiration she felt for her captain. He probably didn't even realize how his actions were impacting the reindeer because he always acted on his impulses rather than thinking things through, but she could tell by the look on the reindeer's face that he was touched by Luffy's restoring of the flag.

The king became irate over Luffy putting the flag back up, and started mouthing off about how pirate flags were worthless and things for play. He was wrong, though. A pirate flag was the heart of a crew. It bound them together, and it represented what they stood for. The straw hat symbol on their jolly roger identified them to any ships that they might come across, and it was a source of pride for all of them on the crew.

The symbol that bound her to her crew mates had become important enough to Iris that she had tattooed it onto her chest. For her it was proof of her bond with a group of humans. She had never even considered that she could form such a strong bond with humans, and so this symbol was a tribute to something she had thought to be impossible. She knew that all of her crew mates felt the same sense of loyalty that she did too, even if it wasn't for the same reasoning as hers.

"I won't let you destroy this flag! A pirate flag is a symbol of faith!" Luffy continued as the king shot a cannonball straight for Luffy. The reindeer was screaming for Luffy to move out of the way, and it was an understatement to say she was nervous as she watched the cannonball explode as it impacted right where Luffy was standing. He was strong though, and she knew that he was stronger than the cannonball. This pathetic king couldn't make Luffy fall.

"This flag will never be broken! A person like you doesn't have the right to destroy this flag and laugh about it!" Luffy shouted irately as the smoke cleared from around him. He had retained his ground and was holding the flag up. "I don't know whose flag this is, but I can't let it be played with!" he continued. The pride she felt towards Luffy was increasing with every passing moment as he fought for the unknown pirate flag. She knew in that moment without a shred of doubt that he would surely be the man to become the Pirate King.

She glanced over to the reindeer who was staring up at Luffy in awe. He had been so burned by humans, and now a human was protecting something that was of great importance to him. Luffy wasn't an average human though; he was an exception. Luffy couldn't care less if another individual was a human or not. The only thing that mattered to him was if he liked you or not, and he seemed to like most.

Luffy then called out to the reindeer and said he was going to beat these people shortly, and wanted to know what the reindeer was going to do. The reindeer seemed surprised by Luffy talking to him, and she smirked. Luffy had a talent of winning people over, and it looked like he had won over the reindeer.

"You don't get to take all the fun for yourself, Luffy!" she shouted out.

"I'll jump in too!" Sanji shouted as he turned to run towards the king, but a loud popping noise came from his spine and he groaned as he fell to the ground. Doctor Kureha said something about his spine being dislocated, and shoved her foot onto his back. He cried out in pain and was shouting for the doctor to stop as she continued to press her foot down. Iris cringed while watching; that had to hurt a whole lot.

The moment Doctor Kureha removed her attention from Sanji he started crawling towards the enemies. She wasn't sure what he thought he could do in that state since he wouldn't be able to fight like that, and so she sat down on his back to prevent him from moving. He groaned in pain as she sat, and she felt a little bad for increasing his pain, but not bad enough to move. She wasn't going to let him enter the fight even if he was stupid enough to do so.

"I'm not that heavy," she said in response to his groans.

"No, you're not heavy at all! You can sit on me whenever you want! My back is just kind of sore at the moment..." he replied with a shaky voice.

"So you're saying you want me to move? I can let the doctor here sit on you instead," she offered with a laugh.

"No, no... I'm more than okay with a beautiful lady like you sitting on me!" he said.

The tone in his voice was much more chipper, and less pained sounding. She figured that he truly was happy to have her sitting on him, and even with as weird as she found that she chose not to question it. She had told him that she'd try and be more patient with him, and since he hadn't been as obnoxious about her carrying him up the mountain as she thought he'd be she chose to bite her tongue.

She turned her attention back to the fight that was starting in front of her. She still wanted to join in on the fight, but she knew that Luffy would take care of things. She wouldn't forgive the king for the things he had said, but it would probably be best to let Luffy handle this fight now. She was still concerned that she could snap again and lose herself to the rage inside of her, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen

She wished that her dad was with her so that she could ask him about it. He surely would be able to help her learn to control this if he was around, and he would know how to take away the fear of this beast that lived in her body. She needed him, but he was stuck in some prison far away and unable to help with of even realize the struggles she faced. She had nobody to ask about anything related to her fishman heritage, and it sucked.

She didn't even know who she could talk to about this problem. None of her friends would understand because it wasn't a human problem, and she didn't want any of them thinking she wasn't able to control herself and that she was a monster. Part of her thought that her friends wouldn't think differently of her at this point, but that fear was still there. That fear would probably always be there.

She then realized that she had let her mind wander rather than paying attention to what was going on in front of her. She scolded herself in her mind for being stupid enough to let her mind wander while there were still enemies around. Even if she thought without a doubt that Luffy could handle these people it didn't mean she should be letting her guard down. She knew better than that.

She returned her focus back to the scene in front of her in time to see Luffy land on the snow in front of her yelling about how the reindeer was his friend. The reindeer seemed surprised to have Luffy say such a thing, and a small smile made its way across her face. Luffy had a way of making anybody feel accepted; even the people who thought they'd never be accepted by others felt accepted by him. She knew that all too well.

"Do you think you can take that guy, reindeer?" Luffy asked as he pointed to the king's henchmen.

"Yes. They're weaklings to me," the reindeer answered.

Behind Iris and Sanji Dr. Kureha sounded excited about the reindeer stepping up to fight. It was obvious to Iris how fond the doctor was of the reindeer as her eyes lit up watching the scene in front of them. She was excited to watch the reindeer fight for himself and his beliefs.

Sanji started to move a bit and mumbled something about wanting to fight, but she wasn't going to budge. He was even stupider than she thought if he actually thought he could help in the state he was in. Not only would he be of no hep in the fight, but she didn't want to watch him make his injuries worse by trying.

"Luffy's got this, Sanji. Those idiots aren't anything he can't handle on his own. Let's sit this one out and watch," she said and he quit struggling.

"My name is Tony Tony Chopper!" the reindeer suddenly shouted out. "The greatest doctor in the world gave me this name! Even if doctor was able to forgive you I can't ever forgive you for laughing at his death! I will defeat you!" Chopper continued.

"This is a rumble ball and it will be effective for 3 minutes. I will defeat you in those three minutes," Chopper said as he held up a small ball. Luffy made some comment in the background about how cool that was, and even the king seemed somewhat impressed with the statement. The opponent in front of Chopper was less impressed with him though.

"It starts now," Chopper said as he stuck the ball into his mouth and bit down.


	21. Chapter 21

Iris watched in amazement as Chopper transformed into multiple different states from than the cute little form and the larger human-like form she had already seen. There was a form that looked more like a regular reindeer, and he seemed to be able to combine the forms as well. She had no idea such a thing could even be possible.

She listened to the king's henchmen go on about being able to predict Chopper's movements because he should only have three forms, but then the men were quite surprised to see more than three forms. Since Iris knew nothing about this devil fruit that allowed transformations she listened intently.

She found out from listening to the henchmen talk that Dalton also possess a devil fruit ability that allowed him to transform. Typically this type of devil fruit, called Zoan, had an animal state, a human state, and a half human/half animal state. Were there Zoan devil fruits for all animals? That seemed like it would be a useful ability to posses. Not that she'd be interested in eating any sort of devil fruit no matter how useful it might be; there was no way in hell she could ever give up being able to swim.

Chopper then went on to explain that the Rumble Ball, which she assumed was the small ball he had just put in his mouth, was behind why he could transform into seven different forms rather than three. It had something to do with disrupting the frequencies emitted by the devil fruit, though Iris wasn't sure what any of that actually meant.

Luffy was immensely fascinated from hearing about all of the transformations that Chopper could do. She was impressed as well. The reindeer had to be awfully smart to be able to come up with a medicine on his own that could break down how the devil fruit worked. She knew that Luffy was going to want Chopper on the crew after watching all the transformations he could do, and she hoped that Chopper would join them. If he joined then she wouldn't be the only non-human on the crew.

Iris glanced to Luffy from the corner of her eye to see that he was completely immersed in watching Chopper fight. She understood being excited about the cool new ability standing in front of him, but he shouldn't be completely ignoring the king that was still standing right there.

Just as those thoughts were passing her brain she noticed the king starting to sneak away towards the castle. She immediately jumped up off on Sanji and ran towards the king. Since his back was turned to them as he tried to sneak off she didn't have to worry about him trying to eat her with his ridiculous devil fruit ability, and so she rammed her shoulder into his back with as much force as she could put into it.

The king hadn't been anticipating her catching him wandering off, and so she was able to catch him by surprise as she rammed her shoulder into his back. He fell face forward into the snow, and then she tried to pin his big, fat body to the ground.

"Luffy! How could you take your attention off of the enemy in front of you?!" she shouted. Luffy was, however, completely immersed in watching Chopper fight. He didn't even seem to hear her shouting at him. "Luffy!" she called out a little louder and a little angrier.

"Huh?" Luffy said as he looked at her with a startled look on his face. The look of confusion on his face told her that he hadn't even noticed her run by him to take down the king. She wasn't terribly surprised at his behavior, but that didn't mean she didn't find it annoying. What if the king had made it into the castle and then harmed Nami?

"Luffy... You should know better than to take your attention off an enemy..." she grumbled as she tried to focus on holding the king down. His large body was proving to be troublesome to her. She was having a hard time reaching the places she needed to hold him down; if she was a bit taller she'd have an easier time with this.

"But the reindeer is so cool! He needs to join us!" Luffy said as he looked back to Chopper.

She obviously wasn't going to get through to him as long as Chopper was fighting and impressing him. She could hear Sanji in the background going on about needing to come help her and for the doctor to move off of him, and Iris called back for him to be quiet. The doctor must have known that Sanji would try and enter the fight and sat on him after Iris moved off of him.

She then felt some movement coming from the king that wasn't the struggling he had been doing. She realized that he was trying to eat the snow beneath them to create an escape. She had no way of stopping him from doing so in this position, and she grimaced at the thought of what she was going to have to do next. She was going to have to bite him and cause enough pain that he'd stop his movement. The thought of having this repulsive, racist son of a bitch's flesh in her mouth was almost more than she could stomach, but she wasn't about to ask for help from Luffy either. She was strong enough to handle this on her own.

She took a moment to mentally prepare herself and then sunk her teeth in the back of the king's neck through the fur coat he was wearing. Since his neck was so fat she wouldn't be able to snap his spine with her jaw, but there were plenty of arteries in the neck that she should be able to hit one relatively easily. If an artery was hit and not repaired it would be a short matter of time before he bled out and died.

When blood started soaking through his jacket and flooding into her mouth she removed her teeth and spit out the blood. As soon as this was over she'd have to brush her teeth to get rid of the metallic taste that blood left in her mouth. She hated that taste more than anything.

When she was sure the king wasn't getting back up she got off of him and stood next to his motionless body. She looked up see Chopper transform back to the cute little form and see the king's henchmen passed out on the ground. She was glad that the reindeer had won his fight. Him winning proved that he wasn't just smart, but strong too.

Luffy looked over to the king's motionless body now that Chopper's fight was over and had a disappointed look on his face. He really had no right to be disappointed about her dealing with the king when she had already brought to his attention that he shouldn't have been so distracted with Chopper.

"No fair! I was gonna kick his ass!" Luffy whined.

"Actually, he was my opponent to start with until you butted in, Captain," Iris retorted.

"H-H-How... How dare a filthy fishman touch me..." Iris heard a weak, but angry voice say. She quickly turned her head to the side to see the king turning his head towards them as he remained laying in the snow.

"How are you not dead yet?" she growled as she glared at the pathetic looking king. He looked like he was about ready to pass out, but he was trying his best to remain conscious. He had to know that he would die if he let himself go to sleep with all the blood loss he was experiencing.

"Don't talk about my friend like that!" Luffy shouted when he realized the "filthy fishman" the king was talking about was Iris. She was glad that Luffy had said something; nobody ever defended fishmen. She had always been defending her dad growing up, and the only other person she could ever remember standing up for him was the old village chief. None of the other villagers, even the ones that claimed to like her dad, ever stood up for him to the travelers and pirates that came through. So even though Luffy had no problem with her being a fishman it was still a bit of a shock to have him stand up for her, and it made her quite happy

Luffy then proceeded to stretch his arms out behind him in a move that she was starting to become quite familiar with. As Luffy's arms stretched behind him the king's mouth started to open and a cannon started to come out of his mouth. Did the king seriously have enough energy to fire a cannonball at them? He was on the brink of death as it was. Perhaps he thought that if he was going to die anyway that he'd take them out with him.

"Gum Gum... Bazooka!" Luffy shouted as his arms then flung forward towards the king. The king shot out a cannonball right as Luffy's hands got to him, but it was too late to stop Luffy's attack. Luffy's hands made contact with the king and shot him flying away from them cannonball and all. This fight was finally over.

"Let's go check on Nami," Iris said to Luffy, and he agreed with that plan. Before she turned to head for the castle she saw something sitting in the snow, and so she bent down to pick it up. It was some sort of key that must have fallen off of the king. It must be to some room in the castle. She had no interest in what might be hidden away in the castle, but Dr. Kureha might since she was living in the castle.

After sticking the key into the small pocket on the side of her pants she turned towards the castle to see Luffy already walking towards it, and Sanji trying to crawl towards it. She sighed at the pathetic sight that Sanji was and then walked over to him. She grabbed onto the collar of his jacket and pulled him up to his feet. She had thought about throwing him over her shoulder and carrying him to the castle because it would be easier, but realized if she held him like that his face would be too close to her butt for her comfort level. There was also the fact that he'd probably enjoy that too much.

So instead she let him put his arm around her shoulder and tried to help him alleviate some of the pressure on his spine. He thanked her with a big grin and they walked to the castle together slowly. She could tell that he was still in a good amount of pain, and he was trying his best to not let it show. She could tell, though, by how tense the muscles in his body were.

Before they got to the castle, however, Iris heard a noise coming from behind them. She turned to see what appeared to be a lift of some sort and a bunch of people. She saw Zoro, Usopp and Vivi coming out of the lift with a bunch of humans from the village including Dalton. Her eyes fell on Zoro and she felt her heart flutter and skip a beat. It angered her slightly that she still hadn't been able to stop that response at seeing him.

"I thought you were going to stay on the boat, Zoro!" she called out to him as she turned away from the castle and towards the people arriving on the mountain top.

"I got bored," he shouted back to her. When he realized that she was shouldering Sanji's weight he sneered and made a comment about how incapable the cook was. Sanji tried to push off from her in his anger at Zoro, but his spine gave way again and he collapsed onto the ground. When it became obvious to her that he was going to try and move some more she stuck her foot onto his back with just enough pressure to cause him enough pain to stop his movements.

"I'm just glad you didn't get lost..." she said with a sigh before looking down to Sanji. "Knock it off, would you? How many times have I told you to not do anything that'll further your injuries?! I feel like I'm dealing with children here..." she grumbled.

"Actually, Zoro did get lost! Vivi and I found him half frozen to death wandering about the island," Usopp chimed in while hiding behind Zoro to make sure everything was safe. Iris could feel her eyebrow twitching as she shook her head. At least Usopp and Vivi found him. Iris would have been pissed if they had gotten back to the boat and found Zoro gone and lost.

"Where's Wapol?!" Dalton suddenly shouted as he pushed past Zoro.

"You mean the king? I beat the crap out of him and then Luffy sent him flying," Iris responded. The look in Dalton's face instantly changed from rage to shock. He obviously hadn't expected that they would beat the king. Iris didn't think the king was anything special in terms of strength, but obviously these people felt differently. The only real challenge she had had with the king was his size, but even that proved to be trivial once she used her powerful jaw filled with shark teeth.

The people around started cheering when they realized that Wapol was in fact gone. Dalton was still in shock and not quite ready to accept that Wapol had been defeated. He asked about the other two men that had been with the king, and Iris heard Luffy chime in from behind her that the reindeer had taken care of them.

Iris looked to see Luffy walking out of the castle with Nami tagging along with a big, thick blanket wrapped around her. Even if Nami was feeling better Iris wasn't sure that Nami should be out walking in the cold, but it wasn't her decision to make she supposed.

When Iris turned her attention back to Dalton his was face down in the snow bowing to Chopper to show his appreciation. Chopper looked terrified as he hid half of his face behind a tree, and she couldn't help but laugh at him. He was such a goofy creature! He must have very little survival instincts.

When the townspeople noticed Chopper they started screaming about a monster and raised the weapons they had brought with them despite the great amount of gratitude and respect Dalton was showing to Chopper by bowing his head to the creature. The look of terror intensified in Chopper's eyes and he started to run away. Even Usopp screamed out about a monster as the crowd's shouts made him fear the creature he hadn't even met yet. If she had been closer to him she would have hit him for his rude behavior.

Luffy immediately started chasing after Chopper shouting about how the reindeer was going to be part of their crew. She didn't think the reindeer had agreed to that yet, but Luffy had a way of persuading people to join him. If Luffy had made up his mind about the situation then Chopper would surely be joining them when they left the island.

The townspeople seemed confused as to why Dalton had stopped them from attacking the monster, and she could feel anger swelling up inside her. If these humans had taken the time to meet Chopper rather than judge him by his appearance they would have known he was a gentle, smart, and caring creature. This was why she hated humans; they always judged others by appearances. It never failed.

Seeing the behavior of these humans was making her regret thinking she could give humans the benefit of doubt. Her opinions of humans had began to be altered by her friends and what great examples of humans they were. This was a needed reminder that her friends were exceptions to the human race. Most humans would not be accepting of those different than themselves like Luffy and the others. This was exactly why she couldn't trust humans.

She then lifted her foot from Sanji as she walked towards the crowd of humans. Somewhere in the back of her brain she knew she should approach this calmly so that the negative stereotypes of fishman that were so prevalent wouldn't be reinforced with her, but she was too worked up to listen to that voice of reason. That same voice in the back of her brain tried to tell her that her father would overlook these humans and their discrimination, but she wasn't able to do that.

"You humans are all the same!" she shouted to get their attention. "First, you opened fire at us without so much as listening to our intentions when we were trying to find a doctor for our dying friend! Then I find out you assholes have completely ruined Chopper's image of humans! He's not wrong though... You see someone different than yourselves and assume that we're monsters without getting to know us. If you had taken even two minutes to talk to him you'd know he's smart, kind, and good. Instead you'd rather start shooting off weapons and kill him for being different!" she growled at them.

The blank looks on their faces pissed her off further. The were obviously confused as to why she was talking to them as if she wasn't a human and so she held up her hands up and spread apart her fingers to show the webbing. She then bared her teeth, and pulled the collar of her jacket down to reveal her gills and watched as the blank look on their faces turned to confusion.

"I'm not all human, even if I look it. Humans like you are why I hate the species. My dad is a tiger shark fishman. Does it make you want to shoot me too knowing I'm half fishman? Go on, I dare you," she hissed.

The people slowly lowered their weapons as they stared at her. The anger coursing through her veins was continuing to grow and these idiots didn't seem to understand that. If they understood why she was so upset they'd apologize to Chopper rather than looking at her with such blank expressions. The only human from this village that seemed to be understanding at all was Dalton. One understanding human didn't make up for an entire rest of the village though.

She then felt a hand on her shoulder and whipped around angrily to see Zoro standing behind her. He had a concerned look in his eyes as he looked at her. She realized that the hatred of humans she was expressing was most likely concerning to her friends since they were humans, but she didn't really care about that right now. The hatred that these people had stirred up in her was making it nearly impossible for her to think rationally.

Zoro suggested they walk away from the situation. She started to protest, but he gave her a stern look that stopped her from protesting further. The more rational voice that was still in the back of her brain had been telling her that she needed to remove herself from the situation, but she hadn't been listening to that voice. It was being covered by much louder and angrier voices telling that these humans needed to know how wrong and horrible they were.

The stern and concerned look in Zoro's eyes wasn't wavering, and so she gave in and agreed to walk away with him. Her feet were heavy as she followed him, and her attention was still on the pitiful humans. He grabbed onto her hand and pulled her away so that she was forced to walk away. She was still so worked up that she didn't hardly notice that he had grabbed onto her hand.

She glanced towards Sanji as she was being pulled long to see him looking at her with grave concern and so she flashed a grin as best as she could to him to try and convey that she was fine. She wasn't really fine, but she didn't need him worrying about her. Him being worried about her would only serve to annoy her with the chaotic state of mind she was in.

She followed Zoro into the tree cover, and once they were out of sight and out of hearing distance he stopped and let go of her hand. The sternness had now left his eyes and he just looked concerned. She realized that the concern in his eyes wasn't for the humans that she had been on the verge of harming, but for her. That realization made her temper start to curb, even if only a little bit.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She shrugged her shoulders and kept her mouth shut; she didn't really want to talk about it. He wouldn't understand her feelings on the matter, and she was afraid she might flip out on him. Even if her temper was starting to calm she was still so worked up and full of raging emotions that she knew she wasn't going to respond to him like she should.

"Iris... I know you're upset. Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked, and again she shrugged her shoulders. He sighed and put his hands on her shoulders. "You know, it's hard for all of us to see you so upset by these people. We might not be able to understand what you've been through or even how you feel, but we will all stand beside you, always, in this. You know you're not alone, right? We want to help you. I want to help you," he continued.

His words made her suddenly calm down a lot. He wasn't trying to claim to understand how she felt when he couldn't possibly understand, and that meant a lot to her. Back in her home town humans would try and say they understood her frustrations and anger when they didn't. They meant well, but it only served to isolate her from them even more. She appreciated his words more than she'd be able to put into words.

"Thank you, Zoro... I needed to hear that. It means more than you know to hear that I'll always have you guys backing me up," she said after a long pause.

"So you're going to be okay, right? You're not going to start beating people up or anything, right?" he asked.

"I promise I won't beat anybody up. At least for right now," she responded with a half hearted smile. He tried to smile at her in a reassuring manner, and it made her happy. Moments like this made it hard that he didn't want to be distracted by a relationship, but it also proved to her that he cared about her. She supposed that would have to be good enough for now.

"Good... 'cause I really thought you were going to start rampaging back there. I also thought that stupid cook was going to start crying... He was obviously worried about you too. Oh, and since when are you two friends?" Zoro asked sounding annoyed as he mentioned Sanji.

"Sanji and me? Well..." she started and then explained the saga of how Sanji had saved them during the avalanche, and how she had had to carry him up the mountain. Zoro mumbled something about how worthless the stupid cook was, and she laughed. She definitely felt much better now. "You're not jealous, are you?" she asked with a smirk and his face turned bright red.

"Why would I be jealous... That's stupid..." he grumbled.

"I'm only kidding," she teased, and his face turned a deeper shade of red. "On a more serious note... Thank you again for pulling me aside. If you hadn't have pulled me aside I probably would have done something that I would have regretted. I appreciate you looking out for me," she said quietly.

Zoro nodded his head while muttering that it was no big deal. It was a big deal though, even if he didn't want to act like it was. He seemed somewhat embarrassed, and so she let the subject drop. He decided he was going to go find Luffy, and she decided to stay back in the cover of the forest to make sure she fully calmed down her anger before chancing running into those humans again.

She was watching Zoro's silhouette disappear into the trees when it hit her like a ton of bricks that somehow she had let herself fall in love with the man. She wasn't simply infatuated with him or experiencing a crush; she truly loved him. She was in love with a human.

She was frustrated with herself for feeling that way since he didn't feel the same way towards her, but there didn't seem to be anything she could do about it. She had tried to talk herself out caring for him on a romantic level before and it had failed; there was no way that she'd be able to talk herself out of it now. Her feelings were rooted too deeply to be dug out any longer.

She leaned against a tree and let her body slide down it until she was sitting in the snow against the tree. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even notice the cold from sitting in the snow. Hopefully they weren't planning on leaving right away since she needed to be alone for a moment to process her feelings.

It was obvious after the interaction that had just occurred between them that he cared about, though she didn't think it was on a romantic level. He was closer to her than probably anybody on the crew other than Luffy, and thankfully their friendship hadn't suffered too much after the events at Whiskey Peak. Hopefully acknowledging to herself that she was in love with him wouldn't put strain on their friendship. Even if friendship wasn't where she wanted to settle it was still better than nothing.

She wondered how long it would be before the others figured out how she felt about Zoro. Nami had picked up on Iris' feelings quickly, and so she figured it was only a matter of time with the others. Luffy might not notice, but Sanji and Usopp surely would.

Thinking about Sanji figuring out that she was in love with Zoro made her cringe; it was going to hurt him a lot. The fact that she was in love with somebody other than him wasn't necessarily where she thought the problem would lie... It was the fact that it was Zoro she was in love with. Those two mixed as well as water and oil. The rivalry between the two was irrefutable. Iris was concerned that if Sanji knew she loved Zoro that his dislike of Zoro would turn into hatred.

Perhaps Nami had been right awhile ago when she suggested that Iris tell Sanji. It might be easier for him to take it from her directly than if he were to figure it out on his own. Though she didn't want him to try harder to gain her affections if she told him either. Perhaps he wouldn't notice for awhile if she tried harder to hide her feelings.

The fact that she cared at all about what the cook thought was humorous enough to her that she sat chuckling in the snow to herself. Half a day ago she wouldn't have cared in the least about his feelings, and now she was debating how to best save his feelings. The change in attitude towards him was so sudden that she wasn't quite sure how to deal with it.

She decided she didn't want to think about it further right then. She was about to stand up to go find the others when she heard the noise of somebody or something approaching her. She scanned the area quickly and saw Chopper hiding, but not actually hiding, like she had seen him do before. She tried not to laugh at him, but was having a hard time keeping her laughter inside.

"Is he around here anywhere?" Chopper asked.

"Who?" she asked, though she knew he was meaning Luffy.

"The boy with the straw hat... I think I finally lost him..." Chopper continued.

"Luffy? I haven't seen him come through here. He's a pretty great guy, isn't he?" she asked.

"He keeps chasing me... And now he's saying I should join his crew... But I can't join humans! That's ridiculous!" he said with his voice getting louder.

"Why is it ridiculous? These humans don't care that you're not a human. If they cared about that I wouldn't be with them," she continued.

"You at least look like a human! I'm a reindeer! There's no mistaking me for a human!" he shouted.

"Stop shouting or Luffy will hear you and come running," she said with a sigh. "If you don't believe me just go ask Luffy and the others yourself. These humans are some crazy cool people. You'll forget you're different from them when you're around them," she explained.

Chopper was looking at her with eyes wide and seemed to want something more from her. She wasn't sure what it was he was seeking, but she decided to tell him about how she joined the crew. She told him about how she met Luffy, Zoro, and Nami at her home island. She went on to tell him about how she hid her fishman heritage from them in fear of them hating her, and how Luffy had thought she was cool for being a fishman. She hoped telling him about this would ease his fears a bit.

"... Really? They really don't care that you're a fishman?" he asked with a slightly hopeful look in his eyes.

"Yeah. You should have seen how silly Luffy looked chomping his teeth pretending to have shark teeth like mine," she said while flashing her big, sharp teeth to Chopper.

Chopper then excused himself from her and said he had stuff to think about. When she asked what his decision was on joining them he still said he couldn't do so, but he didn't sound so sure of that any longer.

She decided now was a fine enough time to head back out and find the others. She stood up and realized that the snow she had been sitting in had made her pants wet and freezing cold. She groaned as her soaking, cold pants made walking difficult. She ran through the snow to the edge of the forest trying to heat up her muscles with movement.

When she got to the edge of the trees she could see Luffy, Zoro, and Usopp all outside. Chopper wasn't in the area yet; she figured he still had things to think about it all before confronting them. He still had a lot of reservations about humans, and rightfully so, but he also seemed to want to leave the island. She also felt that he wanted to find a group that would accept him as well.

"Oh, Iris! Where have you been?" Luffy asked.

"In the forest. I wanted some peace and quiet. Did you find Chopper?" Iris asked.

Luffy shook his head no and started shouting for the reindeer to come out. Zoro and Usopp seemed annoyed at Luffy's shouting, and so she knew he'd been yelling for awhile. The forest had done a good job of buffering the noise Luffy was making as she didn't realize he was shouting like this until she walked out of it. If Chopper was still in the forest somewhere he probably wouldn't hear Luffy shouting.

Usopp approached her and asked if she'd teach him some more martial arts while they were waiting to leave. She asked him to show her the movements she had shown him already, and he sighed. She raised an eyebrow at his contempt for her request, but he did decided to show her the movements she had taught him.

The movements he was making were common blocking moves. She was having him sweep his arms in towards his face and then pushing them out and away. The move was good for blocking inexperienced fighters, and could be evolved into different moves to block more experienced fighters. Despite his protesting the moves he had be practicing them anyway; it was evident in the smooth movements he was now showing her.

"Okay, that looks good. Now I'm going to throw some punches at you, and I want you to block me only with this movement," she instructed. His eyes seemed somewhat unsure that he'd succeed, and that would be a big downfall for him. In a fight you couldn't hesitate because you were unsure of yourself.

So without hesitation she started throwing some punches at him, and with much surprise to him he was actually able to block her punches. She was holding back a lot, but still using enough force that it would hurt if a punch landed on him. His confidence seemed to be growing, and so she sped up her movements and added some force.

When he still seemed to be blocking her well enough she decided to mix it up and kicked up her leg. She caught him by surprise and his movements faltered. Her foot made contact with his head and knocked him to the ground.

"This is why I need you to show me better moves!" he whined while rubbing the spot on his head where he kick had landed.

"Again, you have to master the basics first. And you should have seen just now how effective a simple movement like that can be," she said as she held out her hand to him. He grabbed onto her hand and she pulled him up to his feet.

She sighed as she could see he still didn't see the importance of learning the basics. He needed to learn some patience if he wanted to learn martial arts from her. She wracked her brain to think of what she could do to reinforce the importance of the basics, and a great idea popped into her head.

"Who do you think is physically stronger, Usopp. Zoro, or me?" she asked him. He looked as if he didn't want to answer and say the wrong thing, and she sighed again. "Come on, Usopp. My feelings won't be hurt no matter what you answer," she sighed.

He finally answered that he thought Zoro was probably stronger than she was, though he answered very sheepishly. She called out to Zoro and asked him to come and fight her. Zoro seemed confused about her request, but after she asked again he came over.

"Watch carefully, Usopp," she said. She turned to Zoro and motioned for him to start. He came at her and threw a punch to her left side. His punch had plenty of force and speed behind it, but she could deflect it. She used the sweeping movement she had shown Usopp, twisted her wrist so that she could grab onto his forearm, shoved the palm of her free arm into his stomach, twisted her body at the torso, and flipped him over her body so that he landed in the snow on his back with a thud on the other side of her.

"Thanks, Zoro," she said to a confused looking Zoro before looking back to Usopp. "Did you see how I was able to turn that simple defensive move into an offensive move? The basic movements I'm trying to teach you are the building blocks of all martial arts," she said.

Honestly if Zoro had come at her with his full force she would have had a harder time deflecting this punch, though she was confident she'd still be able to do so. He was muscular and strong, but he wasn't trained in the arts. He was a swordsman. He had obviously been confused about why she had suddenly asked him to fight, and so while he had been trying to process what she had asked of him he wasn't coming at her with all of his strength. It was enough to convey her point to Usopp, though.

She was about to suggest he try to block her movements again, but turned back towards the forest instead when she could hear something small coming out of it. She turned to see Chopper walking slowly towards them with some tears in his eyes.

"Reindeer! Join my crew!" Luffy shouted.

"I appreciate the offer, but I just can't," Chopper responded.

"Why not?!" Luffy shouted back.

"I'm a reindeer with a blue nose! I can't travel with humans! It just won't work!" Chopper shouted.

"Shut up and join us!" Luffy shouted louder while throwing his arms up in the air. The tears started pouring out of Chopper's eyes at Luffy's words, and finally he nodded his head yes. Iris had already figured Chopper would join them, but she was glad to have him agreeing himself. She knew that Luffy wasn't going to leave the island without the seven transformations reindeer that he had become so enamored with.

Chopper said he had to go talk to Doctor Kureha, and they all knew he was going to say his goodbyes. Usopp decided that they should get the lift ready to take back down, and Iris wondered why they hadn't been told about said lift before. That lift would have saved her and Luffy a lot of pain if they had been able to use it rather than climb up the mountain.

Apparently the lift was something that had been discovered by a little boy recently, and there really was no way that Dalton could have directed them to it. Talk about bad timing; if somebody had discovered the lift even a few hours earlier it would have made their trip up the mountain a whole lot easier and safer. Sanji wouldn't have been injured, Nami would have seen the doctor sooner, and both Luffy and Iris wouldn't have had to get frostbite. She supposed it didn't really matter though. They made it to the top of the mountain on their own and they were all safe now.

A few moments later Nami and Vivi were coming out of the castle dragging a still injured Sanji along. Nami looked 100x better than she had a few hours earlier; it actually was hard to tell she was ever sick.

"Where'd you find that key, Iris?" Nami asked. Iris put her hand to her pocket to find the key she had picked up from the snow was now gone. Nami grinned back at Iris as Iris tried to figure out how and when Nami could have possibly taken the key from her.

"How did you manage to swipe that key off me?" Iris asked.

"I'm a thief. You know that," Nami grinned. Iris couldn't even recall being close enough to Nami after picking up the key for Nami to steal it. She was also amazed that Nami had been able to grab the key without Iris realizing it had happened.

"What was the key for?" Iris asked with a sigh.

"A weapons room. I was hoping for treasure, but it wasn't anything that exciting," Nami responded.

The group continued talking for a little, and then was stopped when a big commotion could be heard coming from the castle. They all turned to look and see what was going on to find Chopper running towards them in his fully reindeer form with a sleigh on his back. He looked just like what you pictured when you thought of Santa's sled being pulled by a reindeer. The scene was somewhat humorous.

Chopper was followed by Dr. Kureha chasing him while throwing weapons and shouting at him. Chopper yelled for for everybody to jump into the sled, and Iris hopped in as he ran past her. The entire crew jumped into the sled one way or another except Sanji who still was injured, and so Luffy stretched out his arm to pull Sanji into the sled.

Chopper continued running and then jumped onto the wires that were connected to the lift. The sled tracks attached perfectly to the wires as he pulled them down to the base of the mountain. This was definitely easier than their way up had been.

When they got to the bottom of the mountain they all climbed out of the sled and they started heading towards the ship. Luffy was leading the way still looking ecstatic about his new crew mate. His joy was palpable and contagious. They were all excited to have a new crew member.

As they continued towards the Going Merry the sound of cannon fire could be heard coming from the castle. They all instinctively turned towards the sounds and found a sight that none of them were expecting.

The night time sky was lit up with what looked like fireworks, but was insanely more beautiful than any firework Iris had ever seen. The snow fluttering through the now lit up night time sky was glowing a soft, delicate pink. The snowflakes looked like delicate and stunning cherry blossoms floating all around this icy, cold island.

Chopper then burst into hysterics as he watched the pink snowflakes with a look that was both joyful and sorrowful on his face. She had a feeling from the emotional display that he was putting on that this had some deeper meaning than a farewell from Dr. Kureha. Iris would have to ask him about the meaning of the cherry blossom snowflakes sometime.

When Chopper's tears started to slow and he seemed ready to move on they continued on their way to the Going Merry. It was a long, cold trek back to the ship, and Iris found her feet going numb once again. When they finally got there Iris didn't think she'd ever been so happy to see the Going Merry. She was more than ready to leave this snowy winter island.

When they got back to the ship they found a very frozen Karoo floating in the river near the bank where the ship was docked. Vivi immediately started freaking out, rightfully so, and went to pull the duck out of the water.

After they had all gotten on the boat, including the frozen duck, they set sail towards Alabasta. Vivi was still tending to Karoo as he defrosted and wanting to know what had happened to him that he ended up in the ice cold water. Iris was curious as well since the duck didn't seem like the type to jump into an icy river on his own. He seemed to prefer to play it safe.

"He says that he jumped in after Zoro. Zoro jumped in and disappeared and he was worried," Chopper said, and they all looked at him. He could understand the duck? "I am an animal, even if I did eat the human human fruit. I can understand animal language," he explained.

With that Nami smacked Zoro in the back of the head for being so careless, and they all laughed. Iris glanced back to Chopper who had a happy look on his face. This was probably the first time he had felt accepted by a group of others. She gathered from what he had said and from what Doctor Kureha had said that he didn't think he could ever fit in among humans or animals; feeling like one didn't fit in was a feeling Iris could identify with. Now he had a group of humans, and a half fishman, that accepted him without questioning him. She knew what a good feeling that was, and she was genuinely excited for him.

She looked around and saw that Sanji was now up and moving around; he looked like he was feeling a little better. He was headed for the kitchen and she thought now could be a good time to try and get to know him a little bit better. If he was going to cook a meal she could offer her bartending services and make drinks to go along with the meal.

She walked into the kitchen after him and he looked up with a smile when he saw her coming in. He asked her if he could get her anything and she shook her head no.

"Have I ever told you that I ran a bar before I joined Luffy?" she asked as she reached for the cabinet where the booze was kept. "I'll leave the cooking to you, but I figure I can help out making drinks. I'm one hell of a bartender, you know," she stated.

"That's great! I'd appreciate your company while I cook," he responded gratefully.

With that the two went to work in their domains. He started preparing food, and she started preparing to mix up some drinks. This was an opportune time to spend time with Sanji since they could both focus on what they were doing and not have to talk. This was a good start to forging a friendship with him, and she was actually glad to be starting to view him as a friend. She wouldn't admit that part, though.


	22. Chapter 22

Iris and Sanji worked side by side in the kitchen in their own respective areas. She occasionally glanced towards the cook as he worked and couldn't deny that it was impressive to watch him go. His focus was immense as he prepared and cooked the food. Seeing him so immersed in what he was doing gave her a respect for him that she hadn't had before.

Sanji finished the food he was preparing, and she finished the drinks. She made a few non-alcoholic drinks since she knew Luffy didn't care for alcohol and didn't know Chopper's preferences as well as plenty of alcoholic drinks, and then put the drinks on a tray to take them out to everybody.

"Hey Iris..." she heard Sanji say as she headed for the door with the tray of drinks. She glanced back over her shoulder at him and saw him smiling at her with a genuinely happy smile.

"Yeah?" she responded.

"I enjoyed this. We should work together like this again," he said as he started stacking the food a tray larger than the one she had used. She nodded and agreed with him; this had been enjoyable. Working alongside each other had been nice. There had been no pressure to talk since they had been focusing on their work, but it was still time spent together. She'd definitely be okay with helping out in the kitchen again like this.

"Here are some drinks for everybody to celebrate our newest crew member," she announced after walking out of the kitchen. Everybody looked up at her and Luffy was the first one to rush up and grab a drink from the tray. Of course he happened to grab one of the alcoholic drinks, which was fine but she knew he'd enjoy the other drinks more.

"That one's not for you," she said as she grabbed the glass out of his hands and set it back on the tray. She grabbed one of the non-alcoholic drinks and handed it to him. He didn't seem to care at all that she had switched his drinks and started chugging the beverage. It was a good thing she had switched the drinks with as quickly as he was drinking it. Had he chugged one of the cocktails that quickly the alcohol definitely would have hit him hard.

"That's good!" he said and went to reach for another drink. She moved the tray away from him and was about to explain that he'd have to wait until everybody else had gotten their drinks, but he became distracted when Sanji came out of the kitchen with food.

She then set the tray down and explained that the glasses with the lemon wedges in them had alcohol in them, while the ones rimmed with sugar contained no alcohol. She wasn't like Sanji and wasn't going to serve the drinks to everybody; they could get the drinks themselves.

She grabbed one of the alcoholic drinks for herself and watched as the others took drinks. It was a good thing that she had made a few non-alcoholic drinks because Chopper went straight for the non-alcoholic beverage. Luffy came back a few times as well for drinks, while everybody else grabbed the boozy version. Everybody seemed to be enjoying the drinks, and that made her feel pretty good about herself. She had no doubts about her skills as a bartender, but it still felt good to see others enjoying her creations.

She found a spot on the deck and sat down with her back resting against the side of the boat. Everybody looked happy as they ate their food and drank their drinks. Luffy was making a clown of himself by sticking some chop sticks in his nose and making faces with them, and Chopper was copying him. It was stupid, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

She was content watching her friends, who she was starting to feel were more like family than merely friends, having a good time. Part of her felt she should join in with them, but she was also exhausted and not sure she'd contribute much. Her emotional outburst earlier had left her feeling drained, and so she was fine sitting by herself watching them enjoy themselves.

After awhile Sanji came over to her with a plate of food wanting to know if she had eaten yet. She shook her head no and gratefully took the plate of food from him. He asked if she minded if he sat down next to her and she shrugged while saying she didn't care. She wasn't sure if he was asking to be polite of if he was still scared that she was going to react negatively, but she appreciated his asking because he by no means needed to ask.

"How's your back feeling?" she asked before digging into the food.

"I'm fine. Are you okay? You seemed pretty upset back there..." he responded.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I have a lot of trust issues with humans, and the way those humans were treating Chopper sent me over the edge. Zoro was able to calm me down though. I'm fine now. This food is really good, by the way. Thanks," she said in between bites of food.

"I'm glad you like it," he responded with a smile. "I saw that stupid moss head pull you away from everybody... You guys seem to get along with each pretty well..." he said as his voice trailed off. Had he noticed that she wanted more than a friendship for Zoro? He sounded quite depressed as he mentioned how well she got along with Zoro.

"We do," she responded. She had thought about adding an explanation to her comment, but decided against it. He very well might just be jealous of their friendship and not have noticed how she really felt about Zoro. She decided in that moment that she'd wait for him to bring it up rather than explain it to him like Nami had suggested before.

Considering that she was a fairly confrontation individual she really didn't feel like confronting this issue with Sanji if she didn't absolutely have to. She didn't want to talk about the matter with everybody else around to hear, and she didn't want to deal with negative reaction he would surely have. She did now strangely enough care about his opinion, but she also knew that if he had an overly upset or angry reaction she would be quick to become annoyed with him. Hopefully he wouldn't notice or bring it up anytime soon.

"Hey... So, uh... You seemed a little off when you were fighting back there for a bit... Was everything okay?" he asked changing the subject.

She didn't want to answer this question. She was right when she had guessed he had noticed the change in her demeanor when she had been fighting that king. She wouldn't be able to hide it from him any longer. She was still worried about how it could change everybody's opinions of her. She didn't really want them knowing she had a monstrous side inside of her that she couldn't yet control.

"You noticed, huh?" she said after a long pause. He had a very real concern in his eyes, and it gave her a glimmer of hope that perhaps he wouldn't be judgmental of her problem, but that didn't change the fact that she didn't want to talk about it.

He gave her an easy out and told her that she didn't have to explain anything if she didn't want to, but the look in his eyes said he'd continue worrying about her. She didn't want him worrying about her because she found it annoying. So she had to either deal with him worrying about her, or she had to tell him about what had happened. It felt to her that either way she chose was going to have its drawbacks.

"If you repeat this to anybody I swear I'll beat you within an inch of your life," she said as she looked into his eyes. He promised that he wouldn't tell anybody and that he really just wanted to make sure she was alright. She sighed and looked back to the others still having a good time and enjoying themselves in front of them. None of them seemed to be paying attention to her and Sanji, and so she decided now was as good a time as any to tell him about her problem.

"I don't want to tell anybody about this, but if you noticed I suppose I'll try. I really hoped that I'd be able to figure it out on my own and nobody would ever notice... Do you remember when Luffy was fighting Arlong and Arlong got super angry? I think you said something along the lines of him looking like an enraged sea king?" she asked quietly watching his reaction from the corner of her eye as she kept gaze toward the people in front of them.

"Apparently I can do that too," she continued when he didn't visibly show any reaction. "I've done it twice now when things have caused me to become irrationally angry. I have no idea how to control it yet... And I don't want anybody seeing that side of me. I can't think straight through the rage, and I start acting like complete monster," she explained.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Sanji asked.

"You already have. When you called out to me back there it snapped me back to reality. If you hadn't have done so who knows what I would have ended up doing..." she stated. His face lit up when he realized that he had helped her. She hadn't intended to tell him that part; it just kind of slipped out.

"I'm glad I was able to help. You know you can ask me if you ever need anything. I'll always do whatever I can to help," he said. She thanked him as she shook her head no. She didn't want his help on this matter. What could a human know about a fishman issue? And she had the nagging thought that he was only offering to help because she was a woman, but he wasn't saying that part.

She finished her food and looked to Sanji who looked like he was going to say something more, but stopped when Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp came up to them. They were still making to stupid faces with the chopsticks in their noses, and tried to get her and Sanji to join in.

"No way," she responded. Luffy whined and called her no fun while holding the chopsticks closer to her. "Put those things any closer to me and I'm going to snap them in half," she threatened. He either didn't care that she'd snap the chopsticks in half or didn't believe she'd actually do it, because he stuck out his arm further and held out the chopsticks right under her nose.

She opened her mouth and then bit down on the chopsticks. Luffy shrieked when her teeth bit down right next to where his hand was on the chopsticks and pulled his arm back as quick as he could.

"You almost bit me!" he cried out.

"I warned you," she responded with a big, toothy grin.

"She did warn you," Usopp added in with a know-it-all expression on his face. Both Sanji and Chopper nodded in agreement as Luffy pouted. Luffy became distracted quickly enough, however, when he decided he was still hungry. He started heading for the kitchen and Sanji immediately started chasing after Luffy; Luffy wasn't allowed in the kitchen without supervision for fear of him eating all of their food storage.

Usopp and Chopper ended up wandering off too trying to entertain themselves more than she was doing. She was glad to once again have some time to herself, but it didn't last for long. The next interruption was one that she was more than okay with, though.

Zoro came and sat down next to her holding a bottle of sake he had found in the kitchen. He sat down next to her and took a long drink from the bottle. He held it out to her and she gladly took the bottle from him. She took a drink too, and smiled. She was glad to be sharing a drink with him like they frequently did. This had become their thing to do together. It wasn't anything more than platonic, but she still enjoyed it. She got to spend time with him over something they both enjoyed.

"What were you and that stupid cook talking about? It looked pretty serious," Zoro asked.

"You are jealous, aren't you?" she asked with a laugh as his face turned red. He denied being jealous and she laughed some more. She tried to explain that she was able to be friends with more than one person at a time, and he said that he knew that. She figured his jealousy stemmed from his dislike of Sanji rather than from any sort of romantic place, but that didn't stop her from being happy that he was jealous.

They continued to pass the bottle back and forth until it was empty. She got up and went to the kitchen to find another bottle, and after digging around through the cupboards found what she deemed to be the best quality booze they had. She grabbed the bottle and headed back out of the kitchen.

She saw that Usopp and Luffy were still up chit chatting with each, while Chopper, Sanji, Nami, and Vivi weren't anywhere to be seen. It was late and they had all had a long day, and so she assumed they had all made their ways to bed. Zoro was still sitting where she had left him looking up at the sky sleepily.

She took her seat next to him again and offered the bottle to him after opening it and taking a drink. They talked a little as they shared the bottle, but mostly seemed to be enjoying the quiet and each other's company. It was nice that he seemed to understand that talking wasn't necessary all the time. She could enjoy talking with the others, but too much social interaction exhausted her. This was one of the many things that she had discovered that she loved about him.

"Are you still gonna teach me to use a sword?" she asked after watching Usopp and Luffy wander off to the boys' room to go to bed. She still wanted to learn, and now seemed as good a time as ever to start. After all, she had no idea what kind of people they would be facing off against in Alabasta as they took on Baroque Works. She had a feeling that she would need as many skills as she could have to go against an organization run by one of the Seven Warlords.

"Is your shoulder better?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's fine now," she answered.

"Okay. Then yeah, I'll teach you. I've never taught anybody else before, so I'm not sure how effective of a teacher I'll be," he responded. He then asked her to go grab the sword she had found so that he could take a look at it. She was sure the sword she found in the rubble of Arlong Park wasn't anything special, but as long as she could use the sword to learn a few things it would be fine for her.

She made her way to her feet and walked to her room. She opened the door as quietly as she could so that she wouldn't wake up Nami or Vivi, grabbed the sword, and headed back out of the room. The sword was light in her hands, and had a sturdy feeling hilt. It looked like a katana from her little knowledge of swords, but she wasn't positive. She also noticed the guard wasn't very large, and she really had no idea if that was a good or bad quality in a sword.

She had no desire to start carrying a sword; she just wanted to know how to use one well enough to look like she knew what she was doing after snatching a sword away from an enemy. She didn't want to be like Luffy when he had been swinging wildly at Arlong and making it obvious he didn't know what he was doing. If she looked like she was an accomplished swordsman there might be people that would leave her alone rather than starting a fight.

Zoro stood up when he saw her emerge from her room and held out his hand to take the sword from her. He looked the sword up and down and then slashed the air with it a few times in a rather graceful manner. He declared that the sword wasn't too bad, and that it would be a decent enough sword to learn with.

He handed the sword back to her and asked her to hold the sword how she thought a swordsman would hold it. She gripped her hands around the hilt with the sword pointing up at about a 45 degree angle from the ground, staggered her feet, and bent her knees slightly.

He looked her intently as he observed her form, and then stepped behind her. He placed his chest against her back, put his arms on top of hers, and wrapped his hands over hers as she gripped the sword. He twisted her hands with his so that they were gripping the sword in a slightly different position, and then he changed the angle she was holding the sword by tilting her wrists.

She was glad that he was standing behind her and couldn't see how red her face was turning. Having his body pressed against hers like this was just about more than she could take. Even through the thicker fabric of the jackets they were wearing she could feel the defined muscles in his chest and abdomen. She didn't think she had the ability to focus on anything but him with his body pressed against hers so closely.

"You need to loosen up a bit... You won't be able to move freely holding the sword so stiffly," he said. That was easier said that done.

When he stepped away from her she let out a deep breath that she hadn't even realized she was holding in. She tried to relax her shoulders and arms and focus once again on the sword. She knew he was correct when he said she needed to be loose; stiff and controlled didn't work for martial arts so why would it work for swordsmanship?

When Zoro decided she had loosened up enough he grabbed one of his swords and held it similarly to how she was holding it. He showed her a basic slashing movement that swung the sword from above his head downward at a slight angle towards the ground near the outside of his ankle.

She tried to imitate what he was doing, but she was told that she wasn't moving her wrists correctly. He demonstrated the movement again and she paid special attention to what his wrists were doing. She could see a slight difference between his movement and what she had done, and again tried to imitate the movement he had made after making an adjustment.

Once again stepped behind her and gripped his hands over hers to correct her form. She tried to maintain her focus and not stiffen up so much, but she knew she couldn't completely stop herself from tensing up.

If he noticed that she had stiffened up he didn't say anything this time. Hopefully he would assume that her stiffening up was just because of how cold it still was outside. He instructed her to hold the sword over her head, and so she did. As she moved her arms his arms moved with hers, and he shifted her movement slightly. When she slashed the sword down he again altered her movement so that she could feel where her arms should be.

He then stepped back and had her do the movement on her own. He nodded his head as he asses her form and then decided her form was good enough. She continued practicing that movement, and didn't stop even though the muscles in her arms were burning from exhaustion. Normally she'd be able to keep up her momentum easier, but her arms were still recovering from scaling up the mountain carrying Sanji up to Dr. Kureha.

"You're movements are getting lazy. You should stop before that bad form is ingrained into your body," Zoro instructed in a stern tone.

Iris was tempted to ignore his comment and continue practicing, but deep down she knew that he was right. She would have told Usopp the same thing if he was practicing something she had taught him sloppily. So she did as he asked, and she sat down next to him once again and placed the sword on the ground next to her.

Her hands were sore and bleeding again from gripping onto and swinging the sword. The skin on her hands was cracked from the exposure to the cold and climbing up that treacherous mountain, and the wounds had broken back open. She probably should wrap up her hands, but she didn't feel like going and finding bandages. Instead she stuck her hands into the pockets on her jacket.

"It's still freaking cold out here," Zoro said as he leaned into her a bit.

"You could go inside and go to bed. It's probably warmer in the bedroom," she suggested, but he didn't respond. She knew that personally she preferred to be outside over being shut in the bedroom. She didn't have claustrophobia or anything like that, but she was paranoid about being in places without multiple escape routes. She wasn't sure why he didn't want to go inside though; he didn't seem to have a problem falling asleep anywhere or anytime.

Thinking about her aversion to being in enclosed spaces made her think about her dad. This particular quirk of hers didn't appear until after her dad had been arrested by the navy. After the navy had taken him away she had had a hard time falling asleep indoors. The nightmares of her dad being taken away from her were much more frequent and intense indoors.

So instead she would go out to the beach or even the roof of her house to sleep most nights. Outside she had endless escape routes if she had needed an escape rather than just the doorway or window from her room. The people in Orange Town thought she was strange at first and would try to get her back inside, but eventually accepted the fact that they weren't going to change her mind.

Thinking about her dad she wondered if Vivi, being a princess, could access information from the navy or government about her dad. That seemed like something she might be able to do. Perhaps Vivi would be able to access information that would let Iris know if her dad was still at Schwarzer Rock or if he had been transferred to another prison. Or maybe Vivi would be able to find the location of Schwarzer Rock so that Iris at least had a vague idea of the direction her father could be in.

Her mind continued running as she thought about her dad, and eventually she fell asleep. Her brain was tired, and her body was exhausted. Having Zoro leaning up against her keeping her warm made her feel safe and comfortable, and she was able to finally get some decent sleep.

The next morning when she woke up it was significantly nicer outside. The sky was clear, the sun was rising over the horizon, and it was already warmer than it had been in days. It was still early, and the only sign of life she could see was the light on in the kitchen; Sanji was already up working on breakfast.

She looked down to her lap and saw that Zoro's head was now resting on her lap as he slept. She couldn't stop the smile that was forming on her face as she looked down at the sleeping swordsman. He looked peaceful and rather cute as he slept. She felt a twinge of sadness though; she wished more more than anything that he felt the same way about her that she felt about him.

She knew she had to respect his wishes and let him reach his goal. She would keep repeating that line to herself as often as it was necessary. If she respected his wishes then perhaps their friendship would grow and eventually turn into something more. She would do whatever she had to maintain a strong friendship with him until that day came. That was the decision she came to in the early morning light as Zoro slept peacefully with his head on her lap.

Iris then noticed the girls' room door opening and saw Nami coming out of the room. At first Nami seemed to be immersed in making sure the ship was headed in the correct direction, and then Nami noticed Iris and Zoro down on the main deck. Nami's eyes widened as she looked at them, and then her eyebrows nestled down to make a very skeptical expression. Nami came down to the main deck and stood right in front of Iris who was still sitting on the ground still looking skeptical of what she was seeing.

"What?" Iris grumbled as she looked up at Nami.

"What are you doing?" Nami asked quietly so to not wake up Zoro.

"Sitting. That's a pretty stupid question," Iris retorted.

"You know what I mean," Nami said as she pointed to Zoro. "Aren't you mad at him? He's a jerk, remember?!" she asked. Iris shrugged her shoulders not wanting to get into anything with Nami at that moment. They were out in the open where anybody could hear them, and there was also the fact that Zoro could wake up at any moment, and she didn't want him hearing any part of that conversation.

Realizing that Iris wasn't going to say anything Nami rolled her eyes and stormed off. Iris glanced back at Zoro again who was still snoring away, and she thought to herself that she must be a glutton for punishment. Nami had every right to wonder why Iris was still wanting to be so close to Zoro after all that Iris had told her. She knew that Nami would demand an explanation later.

Not wanting to deal with that now Iris decided she should get up and do something to be productive. She gently moved Zoro off of her lap and stood up quietly so not to wake him up.

Iris decided that she wanted to start her day off with a swim. Swimming was always the best way to wake up and get blood pumping through her veins. She was about to jump over the side of the ship when she remembered she had bought that swimsuit. She wasn't sure she really wanted to be seen in said swimsuit, but at the same time she knew it would probably be a better option than jumping into the salty water fully clothed.

She made her way to her bedroom and found Vivi curled up in a sleeping bag between Nami and Iris' beds. Iris made a mental note to tell Vivi she could sleep in the bed until they got to Alabasta. She felt bad seeing the princess sleeping on the floor when there was a completely unused bed.

She found her swimsuit still with the price tags on it and hesitated before putting it on. Considering how little material was used to make the suit it should have cost a whole hell of a lot less than it had. This would barely cover all that it needed to cover and she couldn't recall how she had actually convinced herself to buy it.

Even with her hesitations she put the swimsuit on. The light purple top that matched her hair was a pretty color, but was about all it had going for it. The triangle top barely covered her boobs, and the black swim shorts could barely be considered shorts with how short the inseam was. The "shorts" barely made it over her butt.

She looked in the full length mirror that Nami had placed in the room and watched her face turn red as she saw her reflection. She felt ridiculous in this swimsuit. Nami would wear something like this and look fine in it, and she tried to tell herself she looked fine in the swimsuit too. The suit should be better for swimming that her regular clothes, and she was going swimming. She still felt absolutely ridiculous.

She decided she should get it over with now while everybody was still asleep; she knew she wouldn't be brave enough to walk out of the room dressed like this if everybody was up and would be able to see her.

So opened the bedroom door and peeked her head out. Zoro was still sleeping while everybody else still weren't anywhere in sight. She made her way to the side of the boat and jumped over the side. Nami must have heard the splash when Iris hit the water, because she stuck her head out of the kitchen door and shouted for Iris not to get separated from the boat because they wouldn't be coming back from her if she did.

Iris rolled her eyes at Nami's warning and dove under the water; she wasn't stupid enough to get separated from the boat. The water was still a little cold for her tastes, but it wasn't terrible considering the winter island they had just left. She took in a deep breath and let her gills clear out as water moved through them.

She started off by swimming down as deep as she could while maintaining sight of the bottom of the Going Merry, and swimming back up to the boat. She was able to go fairly deep down while still being able to see the boat. She did that repeatedly as fast as she could to warm up her body before starting to working on some of her fishman karate techniques.

She knew that she still had a long way to go to be considered a master of fishman karate. Her dad had taught her techniques that were mainly used in water, and she knew there was a lot more to fishman karate than that. He had taught her how to create currents and small whirlpools as well as how to make her other forms of martial arts more effective in water. The only real technique that she had been taught for land fighting was how to shoot water droplets off of her fingers if she had a source of water nearby to use.

She really wanted to learn more techniques that would be useful on land, but she wasn't sure where to start with that. Perhaps if she was able to increase her abilities under water it would be easier for her to learn more techniques that could be used on land. She wanted to be able to compete with people like Arlong or her dad, and right now she was far from that. If she had tried to engage Arlong in a battle of fishman karate he would have won by a long shot. She needed to be better than that. Since she was the only fishman on the crew she felt she needed to be able to defeat any threats that came at them from the water.

While keeping an eye on the Going Merry she swam down far enough that her currents and whirlpools wouldn't be able to reach the boat. Currently her currents and whirlpools were strong enough to catch fish or humans. A fishman or a boat, even a small boat, wouldn't be effected much at her current level. She wanted to be able to change the course of a boat with the currents she could create, and she wanted to be able to create whirlpools big and powerful enough to trap a fishman or sink a ship.

She started by making a deep sea current. It had been long enough ago that she learned how to do the technique that she didn't really have to think about how to do it. She would have to remember how she learned the technique to try and improve it.

She closed her eyes and pictured in her mind all of her energy into her hands and then being pushed out into the water. It was a simple thing for a fishman to do since they were so connected to the water; it really was like second nature to her. The problem was increasing the size and strength of the current.

She used her imagery to picture more of her energy being released into the water. The current didn't seem any bigger to her, but she couldn't think of anything else to try. She continued practicing and imagining while making sure to keep an eye on the Going Merry.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, she was able to see that the current she was creating was increasing in depth. It wasn't much thicker than what she had been creating, but it was something. She continued practicing for awhile so that the feeling of creating this deeper currant could be embedded into her body and brain before deciding she should go back up to the surface.

She swam back up to the boat, surfaced, and grabbed onto the rope she had thrown over before jumping overboard and climbed up. When she reached the top of the ship and climbed over everybody was now up and moving around. Nami and Vivi were standing near the tangerine trees chit chatting, Usopp was working on an invention of some sort, Zoro was swinging some weights around doing some training, Luffy was sitting on the head of the bow like normal, and Sanji was bringing some food up to Nami and Vivi. Chopper, however, wasn't anywhere to be seen at the moment.

"Oh good, we didn't lose you after all!" Nami shouted as Iris climbed on board. Iris glared at Nami for calling attention to her. Nami knew when Iris bought the swimsuit that she hadn't felt comfortable in it, and she had a suspicion that Nami was purposefully poking Iris' buttons by calling out to her.

Sanji looked to her and his nose started bleeding immediately as he noticed her in the swimsuit; this was part of why she hadn't wanted anybody to see her. She had known that would be his reaction and she wanted nothing more right now than to beat the perverted smile off of his face. Being ogled like that thoroughly pissed her off.

"You won't get rid of me that easily Nami," Iris retorted trying to not show her embarrassment or anger. She knew giving a reaction would only give Nami some sick sense of joy and make her keep up her behavior. She leaned over the side of the ship and wrung the excess water out her hair with her hands.

When she turned back around Sanji was standing right in front of her with some food held out to her. He still had blood dripping down his face from his nose and she knew she wouldn't be able to hold back any longer. She took the food from him, and then punched him on the side of his head.

He was knocked to the ground by her punch, but he didn't seem bothered by it. He mumbled something about how cute she was even when she was angry. She could feel her temper growing inside of her, and she was trying to contain it. Here she was thinking that they had made some progress in making a friendship, and then he goes and does something like this. She was trying really hard to maintain her cool since his behavior in the past 24 hours or so had been a lot better, but it was proving really difficult.

"Seriously, Sanji?! Don't you dare look at me with such a perverted look on your face!" she growled at him. "Thank you for the food, though," she grumbled angrily as she took a bit of the sandwich he had prepared. She couldn't deny that the sandwich was good no matter how mad she was. Somehow Sanji could even make something as simple as a stupid sandwich taste like a gourmet meal.

Everybody was now looking at her after her outburst. Nami was laughing, and so was Luffy. Usopp looked scared, Vivi looked surprised, and Zoro started laughing hysterically when he realized what had happened.

"You're such an idiot, you stupid cook!" Zoro shouted as he continued laughing.

"Stay out of it you damn moss head!" Sanji shouted back as he stood back up and glared at Zoro.

Iris rolled her eyes as the two boys started arguing and walked away. She finished eating the sandwich she had taken from Sanji as she walked to her room, grabbed some fresh clothes, and then headed off to the bathroom to take a bath. She was cold after getting out of the ocean and a warm bath sounded wonderful.

She locked the door behind her and filled the tub. No sooner had she climbed into the hot soapy water and started to relax when the door started to open. Nami popped into the bathroom with a sly expression on her face a grin that troubled Iris.

"I could swear I locked that damn door..." Iris grumbled as she sunk down further into the tub.

"I'm a thief. You think I don't know how to pick a lock?" Nami responded with a laugh.

Iris rolled her eyes and didn't say anything. She knew that this meant Nami wanted to talk, or more likely try to pry information out of Iris. Nami knew that Iris wasn't big on offering up personal information or feelings, and so she resorted to cornering Iris. It really was a rather crude technique.

"You have some explaining to do," Nami said, and Iris remained silent. She wasn't sure why Nami thought she was owed any explanation of why Iris did anything, but the girl obviously felt entitled to an explanation regardless.

"Come on Iris... You know you want to talk to me about Zoro..." Nami cooed as she walked closer to the tub. Iris shook her head no and glared at Nami. Iris realized, though, that Nami wouldn't leave or let Iris leave the bathroom until Iris had given out the information Nami wanted. Nami was pushy like that.

"You know I'm just asking because I care about you and don't want to see you get hurt," Nami claimed with a smile.

"Liar. You're nosy and want information you can blackmail me with later," Iris retorted.

"Minor details," Nami replied with a smirk on her face as she continued to badger Iris about Zoro. This bath was turning into be the polar opposite of the relaxing bath she had had in mind. She was trying to keep the annoyance she felt from turning into anger. Her getting angry would only encourage Nami to keep poking her buttons.

"I love him, okay?! Is that what you wanted to hear?!" Iris finally growled when she couldn't take Nami's prodding any longer. Nami's eyes widened and so did her smile. That was definitely the piece of information she was looking for. Judging from Nami's expression she hadn't realized that Iris' crush on Zoro had evolved into something much bigger and deeper.

Of course after letting that piece of information slip out Nami wanted more. She couldn't understand why Iris would allow herself fall in love with somebody as brutish, and stupid and as she thought Zoro was. She couldn't seem to understand why Iris would feel so strongly about somebody who had brushed her off so easily. None of it made sense to Nami.

The thing was that it didn't need to make sense to Nami. It didn't make sense to Iris either; her heart had decided to jump in head first without any regards to what her brain was telling it to do. Her brain knew she needed to not feel so strongly for him, but her heart didn't care. There was no reasoning with the feelings in her heart.

Iris didn't really like hearing Nami put Zoro down, either. She figured that Nami was doing it for Iris' benefit, but all it served to do was tick her off. Nami knew that Zoro telling Iris that she was a distraction had hurt Iris, but unfortunately Nami wouldn't be able to talk Iris' heart out of being in love with Zoro. If pointing out his flaws was all it took she would have stopped being interested in him long ago. The thing was, though, that for every flaw he might have she could think of multiple things she adored about the man.

"Would you knock it off?" Iris said as she interrupted Nami's rant about how awful Zoro was. "I didn't mean for it to happen. It just did. It's not like I planned for this to happen..." Iris continued and let her voice trail off. She really hadn't planned for this to happen. Falling in love with Zoro would only make her life more difficult. She really didn't have the option of telling him how she felt because she wanted to respect his desire to pursue his goal, but holding in her feelings was going to be rather difficult.

"I can't believe you, of all people, would fall for anybody so quickly. You're the most standoffish of any of us on the ship, and yet you're the one to fall in love. How cute," Nami said. There wasn't any sarcasm or malice in her voice now; Nami really thought it was cute that Iris was in love. Iris, on the other hand, didn't find it so cute.

Iris then vaguely explained how Zoro had pulled her aside and calmed her down back at Dr. Kureha's place, and how she realized in that moment she was in love with the swordsman. Nami listened intently so as not to miss any details. Iris really hoped that Nami wasn't still looking for information to blackmail her with in the future. Iris really did want to have a typical girl friend relationship with Nami, but she still had a hard time trusting the girl.

"I'm gonna go knock some sense into him. Maybe if I hit him hard enough he'll realize what an idiot he is," Nami said. Iris wasn't sure if Nami was joking to lighten the mood or if she was serious, but either way she didn't want Nami interfering in this. Nami had no business trying to play matchmaker. The reality of the situation was that Iris wanted Nami as far away from this situation as possible.

"Nami... You have to promise you won't tell anybody anything I just told you... If you tell a living soul what I've just told you I swear I'll murder you," Iris said as she sunk down further into the water as if hoping to disappear into the water. She didn't know what she'd actually do if Nami blabbed, but it wouldn't be anything good.

"I won't. You really should trust me more than that. What kind of friend would I be if I went around spilling your deepest, darkest secrets? Us girls got to stick together," Nami said with a wink.

"You swear?" Iris asked.

"I swear on all my money!" Nami replied with a big grin. Promising on her money seemed like a pretty thing to promise over for her in Iris' eyes. Iris felt a little bit better about having this conversation with Nami now that she could be reassured somewhat that Nami wouldn't let her secret out.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd leave now so I can finish my bath in peace and quiet. You're giving me a headache," Iris said. Nami sighed at Iris' request, but complied. She left the bathroom, and apparently found Sanji standing right outside wondering what the two women were doing in the bathroom together. His thoughts must have gone down a dirty path because Iris was able to hear Nami yell at him, and she then heard the thunk of Sanji hitting the ground. Iris could easily imagine the kind of comment he had made to Nami to get a reaction like that out of her.

Iris finished her bath, got out and dried off, put on her fresh and clean clothes, and made her way back out to the deck. Everybody seemed to be doing their own things. She noticed Usopp working his way around the different decks cleaning, and she decided to join him. He took a lot of care making sure the ship was in the best shape he could, and it would probably make him happy to have some help.

He had been cleaning things up for awhile and all he had left to do was mop the decks, and she told him to take a break and let her do it. He seemed unsure of how to handle letting somebody else clean up; he had taken up the responsibility of cleaning the ship Kaya had given them. It hit Iris that Nami was wrong; Iris hadn't been the first person to fall in love on the crew. Usopp had fallen for Kaya long before they had ever met him. It just wasn't as obvious to Nami because Kaya wasn't on the ship with them. Taking care of this ship was akin to taking care of Kaya for Usopp.

When Usopp didn't seem to want to hand the responsibility of mopping the decks solely over to Iris she settled for grabbing another mop and joining him in the task. It didn't take too long for them to finish everything.

She spent the rest of her afternoon doing some training on the back of the ship hidden away from the others, and then helping Usopp solidify the defensive movement she had taught him. He seemed to have the movement down fluidly enough that she figured he should be able to learn some new techniques soon.

After eating dinner with everybody and hanging out outside for awhile everybody went off to bed. Iris said she'd take the watch shift that night and made sure to tell Vivi that she was welcome to sleep in the bed. She could tell from Vivi's expression that she didn't want to intrude and sleep in Iris' bed, but at least she had offered it to the princess.

She caught Chopper before he went to bed as well and asked him what he thought of being a pirate so far, and his face lit up. He felt completely accepted despite being a reindeer, and he couldn't be happier. She was glad to see such a genuine happiness and excitement on his face. She told him goodnight, and climbed up into the crow's nest as he went off to go to bed.

The night passed without any sign of life threatening them or even passing by, and after what seemed like forever the sun starting making its appearance on the horizon. Sanji had gotten up and was already in the kitchen working away. Usopp was the next one up, and she told him he was now on watch as long as he was the only one up.

She made her way down from the crow's nest and peeked her head into her bedroom. Sure enough Vivi was still sleeping in the sleeping bag on the floor. Iris grabbed a blanket because it was a little chilly outside still, and headed back outside.

She went to the back of the ship behind where the tangerine trees were. She leaned against the siding and pulled the blanket up over her shoulders. Without much effort she fell asleep hoping that the rest of their journey to Alabasta would go by quickly.


	23. Chapter 23

The next few days seemed to take forever to pass. Luffy managed to eat through all of their food reserves, though she heard that he had some help from Usopp and Chopper, and the fish weren't biting their lines because of lack of bait. Luckily for them they had Iris on board who could go and find them some fish easily enough; though there was definitely not as many fish in this part of the sea that she was used to seeing. Still, Luffy always seemed to want more food than she produced. His never ending appetite baffled her.

She continued training on her fishman karate and making some deep sea currents, and did as much strength training and stretching as could on board. She taught Usopp how to take the move she had taught him and continue the movement to make it into another defensive move, as well as worked on being able to dodge movements. He wasn't great at dodging movements yet though; he thought too much and didn't just react. It would take a lot of practice for him to be able to react rather than think.

She was also able to continue her training on the sword with Zoro for small amounts each day. Her knowledge of martial arts was more useful in learning the skill than she had thought it would be. She was fairly good at mimicking his motions and was able to think of the sword as an extension of her arm. It was almost as if she was adding a new martial arts style to her already vast repertoire. It also meant spending time with Zoro; that was her favorite part of the training. She thought he seemed to enjoy teaching her as well.

She was glad that as they sailed towards Alabasta that Sanji hadn't brought up what she had confided in him again; he acted as if she hadn't told him about not being able to control her monstrous anger. She appreciated him keeping that little secret just between the two of them more than he could possibly know. She would have to tell him that at some point. Since she was trying to be more friendly with him it would probably prove helpful to let him know she appreciated him keeping her secret to himself.

The only real excitement they had was when Mr. 2 from Baroque Works made an appearance on their ship. They had no idea at the time who he was, and he seemed not to realize that they were enemies of Baroque Works either. The man was strange to say the least with his swan outfit, obnoxious voice, and silly dance moves. He was a devil fruit ability holder as well; he could transform into anybody that he touched.

Mr. 2 managed to touch her along with the others as he was reaching out and touching all of them to show them all his "fun" ability. She about punched the man as she yelled at him to get his filthy hands off of her. She had no desire to interact with this strange individual or for him to even be on their ship for that matter. She really didn't like that this person could transform into her or the others. Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper all seemed quite entertained with the man, but all Iris could think about was getting the man off of their ship.

Eventually the man left to his own ship and Vivi informed them of the man's true identity. She was shaken because one of the faces that Mr. 2 had shown them belonged her her father, the king of Alabasta. At least Mr. 2 hadn't seemed to realize who any of them were, and so he hadn't tried to harm them. Even if the man seemed like an eccentric goofball he had to be strong if he was as high up as "Mr. 2" in Baroque Works.

During their long sailing days Iris also discovered the reason as to why, or most likely why, Zoro would frequently choose to fall asleep sitting next to her. Vivi was asking Iris about her night terrors, and Iris was curious about how the princess knew about Iris' nightmares since she couldn't remember having had a nightmare since the princess had joined them. Vivi tried to backtrack when she realized that Iris was confused, but Iris wouldn't let her walk away from the subject.

Apparently Iris still had night terrors even sleeping outside, but the terrors seemed to be quieted if either Zoro or Luffy were near her. Typically it was Zoro who was around, but Luffy had managed to calm sleeping Iris down as well by being near her for awhile. The others had tried to comfort her as well, but it apparently didn't work as well.

Iris was embarrassed to find out that she was still having night terrors in front of everybody frequently enough that even a newcomer like Vivi had seen them. The others had to have known that she would be embarrassed since they weren't telling her about the episodes. She appreciated their concern, but she wished somebody would have told her before now rather than finding out from Vivi like this.

While trying not to reveal just how embarrassed she was to Vivi about these outbursts she realized it wasn't all that surprising that Zoro and Luffy were the people that were able to calm her down. It wasn't just that she trusted them, because she trusted all the people on the crew, but because she felt safe with them. They were both stronger than she was, and she knew that both of them could and would protect her no matter what. She didn't like to admit that she needed protection, and would typically be offended if offered protection by anybody. But with these two it came naturally. She knew without a doubt that she would never fall if they were around.

It was strange that she could rely on two people so much, and not even just because they were humans. These two made her feel safe to the point where even while asleep and dead to the world she was still comforted by their mere presence. The bonds she had formed to Zoro and Luffy were stronger than she would have ever imagined, and she was glad for that more than she would admit that she had people she could rely on to that extent.

This probably was in part why Sanji brought up how close she was with Zoro the other day. Sanji surely wished that he could step in and be the knight in shining armor and save her from whatever nightmare she was having. The thing was, however, that Iris didn't feel the same security with Sanji that she did with Zoro or Luffy. Sanji was definitely strong, but he wasn't any stronger than she was. There was also the fact that she knew he'd sacrifice himself for without hesitation like he did with Nami and she didn't like that. Both Zoro and Luffy wouldn't have to sacrifice themselves. They'd come up with ways to protect everybody and stay alive.

Still, hearing all of this was troublesome to Iris. She was embarrassed that she was still having these night terrors and that she was so unaware of it. She wasn't sure how she'd be able to fix this problem, but she'd have to try. Vivi kept apologizing to Iris for telling her even though Iris kept asking the princess to stop. It was annoying to have somebody continually apologizing like she was.

At some point as they sailed towards Alabasta Sanji also apologized for upsetting her. She brushed off his apology by telling him not to worry about it, and she tried to act towards him like she had before getting mad and punching him for ogling at her. She had to continually bite her tongue because she was mad, but she knew she needed to get over it despite her stubborn nature telling her to hold a grudge. She kept reminding herself that they had been getting along better recently and that she needed to have patience with him. Dealing with the cook was quickly revealing how little patience she had; she knew she needed to work on that.

Finally they saw something that made Vivi know they were close to Alabasta. It was a giant sea creature that looked like a cat; an animal that was considered to be a sacred animal in Alabasta. This was a sure sign that they were near their destination. Vivi could hardly contain herself she was so relieved to be almost home.

When the sea cat appeared Usopp and Chopper were terrified, while the other boys all thought about food. They hadn't gone hungry despite Luffy eating their food supply because of Iris being able to fish, but that didn't stop them from wanting to eat the creature. When Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji went to attack the animal Vivi smacked them all and knocked them to the ground as she explained about how sacred the sea cats were to her country.

Iris laughed heartily as the boys all rubbed the spots on their heads where Vivi had hit them. Iris hadn't really seen a temper from the princess before, and Iris was glad to see the girl wasn't so perfect after all. It made Vivi feel like more of a real person.

Another sign that they were close to Alabatsa were the Baroque Works ships that were plaguing the waters around them. Luffy's first instinct was to try and fight, but it was decided that they should try and slip away unnoticed and get to Alabasta first. If they fought now it would only draw attention to themselves, and it would prolong their arrival to Alabasta, or perhaps even stop them from arriving in Alabasta.

As the approached Alabasta they all decided that something needed to be done about Mr. 2. He could transform into all of them aside from Sanji and Vivi. If they were to get separated from each other how would they know that it wasn't Mr. 2 trying to rejoin them rather than the actual person? The plan they came up with to avoid that confusion was to draw an "X" on their arms and then to cover it by wrapping some bandage around it. Mr. 2 might try and recreate the bandage, but he wouldn't know about the "X" under the bandage. This was how they would know who was who.

"This," Luffy started while putting his arm with the bandage on it out in front of him, "is proof of out friendship." They all stuck their arms out towards his as Alabasta finally became visible on the horizon. It was a silly thing, but this simple bandage symbolized the bonds they had formed.

It still hit Iris as odd in moments like this how attached she was to these humans and now a reindeer as well. After spending most of her life as a loner with the exception of her dad she still hadn't completely adjusted to having a new "family." Despite her feeling strange to be bonded to so many people she knew she'd put her life on the line for any of them without hesitation or a second thought. Right now they were all going to fight and put their lives on the line for Vivi.

Vivi suggested as the boat approached the island that they stop at the harbor in front of them to stock up on supplies. When they docked Luffy immediately jumped off and started looking for a place to eat. As always Iris was amazed at how much he thought about food; he was acting as though he was starving.

Iris looked around at her surroundings as the heat of the sun penetrated her skin. The air was dry, and everything was sandy and dusty looking. The dryness of the air made her skin feel itchy and left her feeling uncomfortable. It was not a pleasant environment for a fishman, or even a half fishman at that.

There were lots of people walking around, and the city seemed to be lively enough. She wasn't sure why anybody would choose to live in an environment like this, but perhaps the people that lived here hadn't ever even thought about leaving. She hadn't thought of leaving her island before her dad had been arrested, and if he hadn't been arrested she probably would have been content to live on that island for the rest of her life. It was probably a common enough though process to not think about leaving your home island, even if it was a miserable environment like Alabasta was.

Nami was, however, concerned more about Luffy running off than she was with the environment. With the bounty on his head she really didn't want him causing a scene. If there were any bounty hunters around they would surely have seen his wanted poster and go after him. Iris wasn't sure why Nami was concerned though; he could take care of himself easily enough.

"You need to keep a low profile as well! You have a bounty too. Not only is Baroque Works going to be on the alert for you, but also bounty hunters," Nami lectured.

"Yes mother," Iris responded flatly to Nami's stern parent-like and lecturous tone. Nami was about to yell something back at Iris for her remark, but stopped when she realized that might cause a scene and draw attention to them. They needed to blend in rather than stand out, especially Vivi who could very likely be recognizable in this country as the princess. Even if the princess had left the island a few years back to infiltrate Baroque Works Iris imagined the girl could still be quite recognizable.

Blending in would mean that they needed different clothes. They looked like pirates walking through the desert town, and they didn't want to look like pirates. They wanted to look like natives of Alabasta. They wanted to draw as little attention to themselves as possible.

Sanji decided he'd go find clothes for everybody rather than having everybody go off on their own. They were less likely to be noticed with one of them walking around than if all seven of them went looking for clothes. As he wandered off Vivi expressed her concerns about them separating. Luffy had already run off and who knows how they'd find him in such a large town, and what if something happened to Sanji while he was on his own.

"You worry too much. Luffy will be fine, and if we need to find him all we have to do is look for the noisiest place in town. And who cares about that stupid cook. If he gets lost and beat up it doesn't matter," Zoro said, and Nami responded by hitting him over the head as hard as she could.

Zoro grumbled something under his breath and glared at Nami. Iris didn't think he'd actually hit Nami back, but the look in his eyes said he was thinking about it real hard. Iris stood between Nami and Zoro to stop any bad feelings between them from escalating further while reassuring Vivi that both Luffy and Sanji would be fine.

"You worry too much, Vivi..." Iris said as she pushed Zoro and Nami back from each other. They were still arguing with each other and it was annoying to Iris. "Would you two knock it off?! Keep arguing and I'll beat both of your asses," Iris grumbled. Nami made sure to get the last word in and make one more snide comment, but did turn her back to Zoro after that.

They then decided to sit in a secluded area as they waited for Sanji to come back, and as they all waited Iris noticed how uncomfortable poor Chopper looked. This was his first experience on an island that wasn't his home island. He lived on a winter island, and this desert island was the exact opposite of that. He had to be even more uncomfortable here that she was. This island would by trying for the poor reindeer.

When Sanji came back with the clothes for all of them to disguise themselves in Iris couldn't say she was surprised by what he had chosen. She didn't like the clothing at all as it would show too much cleavage and too much of her stomach. She didn't like the pants he had picked out either. They were harem pants that had slits in the side of them; each side had a slit cut out from the ankle to the knee and another one that went from the knee to the hip. This outfit would show off way too much skin for her tastes.

"There is no way in hell that I'm wearing this," she said as she looked at the clothing in her hands. She threw the clothing back at Sanji who should have known better than to come back with an outfit this revealing.

"Oh come on, it's pretty!" Nami said as she looked at the clothing.

"This clothes will make us look like dancers..." Vivi observed out loud with a less than enthusiastic tone.

"You will all look so beautiful though, so it's fine!" Sanji cooed as he gave the clothes back to Iris that she had just thrown at him. She was about to again express her distaste for the clothing, but Nami dragged her off so they could go and find a place to change into the clothing.

The three girls found a place to change, and Iris hated the clothing even more once they were on than when she had just been looking at them. The harem pants moved around way too much and showed too much skin even just walking with the slits in the sides of the pants from her ankle to her knee and another from her knee to her hip. Her entire stomach was bared and her boobs barely covered; the top wasn't much better than her bikini top. It did have a pretty gold pattern woven through it with thread that looked good against the deep purple fabric, but that was about it's only redeeming quality.

There were also various pieces of jewelry for them to split, though Nami took most of the jewelry. Iris took a gold arm cuff and slid it up the arm that didn't have a tattoo, and threw a few gold bracelets on the other wrist. She didn't own much jewelry and so she never wore it, but she was surprisingly a fan of the cuff. She felt the cuff accentuated the muscle tone of her arm.

"Your tattoo is completely uncovered..." Nami said with a sigh as she looked at the tattoo on Iris' chest. The tattoo on her arm wasn't as big of a deal because it wasn't a pirate emblem, but the one on her chest marked her as a pirate. Nami rolled her eyes and excused herself for a moment after telling Iris and Vivi not to move from their spots.

"Your skin is darker than mine so I wasn't sure which color you'd need. Figure it out, and I'll take the others back. You can pay me back for this later," Nami said as she handed Iris some makeup to cover the tattoo with. She didn't wear makeup and so she hadn't ever bothered to try and pick out a color that matched her skin before. Hopefully there was a color that matched her skin well enough.

She opened up the containers and found one that matched her skin color closely enough. She handed the ones that wouldn't work for her back to Nami, and Nami took them back to the store for a refund as Iris covered the tattoo. She wasn't crazy about having to cover her tattoo up, but she could understand why Nami thought she should.

Once Nami had rejoined them they walked back to where the boys should be. Sanji's reaction to their clothing was predictable as blood started dripping down his face from his nose. She bit her tongue to refrain from saying something and causing a scene, though she'd get him back later for picking out such outrageous clothes for her. She'd feel much more comfortable to be dressed like the guys were. They were covered, and their skin wouldn't burn so badly from the over exposure to the sun.

"Smile, Iris. You'd look much prettier and blend in with the natives better if you didn't look like you were going to murder somebody," Nami instructed.

"Maybe if I wasn't dressed up like a hooker I'd not feel like murdering somebody..." Iris grumbled as she glared at Sanji.

"You don't look like a hooker! You look gorgeous!" Sanji cooed. She was about to argue back with him, but noticed Chopper looked even more uncomfortable than he had moments eariler as he covered his nose with his hooves. She decided to ignore Sanji and crouched down in front of Chopper to see if he was alright.

"He must have a sensitive nose... Nanohana is famous for its perfume. This probably isn't a good city for you to be in..." Vivi explained in a concerned tone.

"Oh. You mean perfume like this?" Nami asked coyly as she sprayed some perfume on her neck. Sanji looked like he was going to lose it as he watched Nami spray the perfume. She was definitely putting on a show now; she was purposefully keeping Sanji right in the palm of her hand. It was pitiful how easily Sanji fell for Nami's plot.

"I'm going to break that bottle if you don't knock it off," Iris threatened as she stood back up and glared at Nami. Nami smirked and commented about how Iris would owe her for perfume and makeup then, and Iris continued to glare at Nami. As soon as they were back on the ship Iris would dig through her belongings to find some money and pay back Nami. She couldn't stand having something like this held over her head.

Vivi started talking about where they would need to head off to next, but Iris became distracted. She noticed some marines walking around, and her blood pressure instantly shot through the roof. She wanted more than anything to run out into the street and start an assault on the marines. More than likely none of these people knew anything about her dad's whereabouts or even who he was, but what if they did? She couldn't waste an opportunity to find out something about her dad's location. And even if they didn't know anything that didn't change the fact that she hated them with a pure and unadulterated hate.

She stood frozen in her spot as she eyed each of the marines that were passing through the street. If she could see a handful walking about right now then there were surely more of them. The ones she could see all looked like they were probably lower level recruits that she could take out without an issue.

There was just one problem; she wasn't allowed to cause a scene at the moment. They were trying to hide their identities and keep the princess hidden. They were on a mission to take out Baroque Works, stop a civil war from starting, and to keep the princess safe. She couldn't just do as she pleased and go wild because the navy was in Alabasta. She kept her feet planted firmly on the ground for fear of not being able to control her movements if she chose to move.

"Iris? What's wrong?" Vivi asked.

"Nothing... I'm fine..." Iris lied through gritted teeth.

"Liar. You're oozing killing intent," Zoro observed.

"You're so scary sometimes!" Usopp said with a nervous laugh.

Iris took a deep breath and made herself turn around to face her friends. She had a forced smile on her face as she again insisted she was fine. Her friends' faces showed that she wasn't fooling them, and she sighed. She hadn't ever been a good liar, especially when her emotions were involved. It would probably be a good idea to practice having a better poker face than she currently had.

So since they didn't believe her lie that she was fine they continued looking at her. Nami's expression was telling Iris not to do anything stupid, Usopp looked nervous like he always was, Sanji and Vivi both looked concerned, while Zoro actually looked somewhat intruded by what she assumed was the killing intent she apparently was oozing. Chopper seemed confused as to what was going on and why Iris was so angry.

"You guys know how I feel about the navy. Take a look around you," she explained with a sigh as she pointed to the street and the marines that were walking through it. They all looked around and the air around them changed when they saw the marines walking around. Not only would they have to keep themselves hidden from Baroque Works, but now the navy as well.

Suddenly there was a big ruckus as the marines were now obviously chasing after somebody. Now would be an opportune time to jump into the mess and beat up some marines since there was already a commotion and she could probably avoid being discovered, but a voice in the back of her head told her not to. Their mission of keeping the princess safe and stopping the impending war was more important than the deep rooted grudge she held against the navy.

"Oh! Hey guys!" Luffy suddenly yelled as he ran past them with a bunch of marines chasing after him. Iris couldn't help but let out a loud laugh to see that the ruckus was being caused by none other than Luffy. She had been standing over here trying to convince herself not to cause a scene by going after the marines, and here was Luffy causing a scene. Well now that the marines knew they were here it didn't matter if she kept her identity secret from them any longer.

"It's the whole Straw Hat crew!" a marine yelled. This seemed as good an opportunity as any jump into a fight, and by doing so it would allow Luffy to get away from them. Just as she was about to jump into the fight she stopped when somebody came running up that looked vaguely familiar came chasing after Luffy.

The man was tall and muscular, and she hated him instantly. He had white hair, a large cigar sticking out of his mouth, and was obviously a higher up in the navy. She wasn't sure how she recognized the guy until she saw a woman running up behind him in the distance that she definitely recognized. She had seen the woman at Loguetown; that woman was the swordsman that had tried to take on Zoro. That meant the man in front of them had also been at Loguetown.

Iris' anger intensified at that realization. She couldn't stand that woman more than she already hated the navy, and so by association she hated that man more than normal too. She tried to tell herself that her jealousy of that woman was misplaced, but Zoro had been so shook up by her. The woman more than likely really did just remind him of his childhood friend, but all the same Iris wished the woman would just disappear. She would love to dispose of the woman herself.

"Run everybody!" Luffy shouted. She didn't want to run though. She wanted to fight. Perhaps she could beat some information out of these marines about her dad, in addition to dealing with this woman she didn't like. Something told her that she wouldn't be able to beat the man chasing after Luffy, but that didn't mean she couldn't try.

She found out the reason as to why she had just had a premonition she wouldn't be able to beat the man moments after having that thought. His fist separated from his main body and was followed by a cloud of smoke that went propelling towards Luffy; this man was a devil fruit eater. Her hatred towards these people and this man was telling her to try anyway fighting anyway. She was't the type to back down from a fight regardless of whether she thought she was able to win or not.

Just as she was about to jump into the fight another individual entered. The new guy's body was engulfed in flames which meant that he also possessed the power of a devil fruit. She thought his ability seemed quite cool, but she really wanted to know why this person entered the fight so suddenly. Was he also an enemy of theirs, or was he an ally?

"You may be smoke, by I'm fire. You don't stand a chance against me," the guy stated in a cocky manner.

"ACE!" Luffy called out enthusiastically as he looked at the new guy. If Luffy new the guy did that mean that he was an ally to them?

"You haven't changed a bit, Luffy. You can't beat him right now, so let me take care of him while you guys get away. I'll catch up to you when I'm done with him," the guy instructed.

Iris wasn't a fan of being told what to do by this individual, but Luffy seemed more than glad to do what the guy said to do. He started running back towards where the Going Merry was, and so the rest of them followed. She hesitated momentarily, because she didn't want to feel like she was running from a fight. She never backed down from a fight. But if everybody else was running back to the ship she probably should join them.

"Come on Iris!" Luffy called out to her when he realized she wasn't running with them.

She knew in her head that she should follow them, but her feet wouldn't turn away from this fight. Luffy must have noticed that she still wasn't coming because she felt an hand grabbing onto her arm and suddenly she was being pulled backwards. Luffy had reached out his arm to pull her to them since she wasn't following him.

When her feet hit the ground again she ran with them after stumbling a little after Luffy let go of her. She beguilingly fell in line with everybody while looking over her shoulder to to see a sea of flames and smoke behind them. That fight was something she probably had no business being in, but that wouldn't change that she didn't want to be a part of it.

As the continued running back to the ship Usopp seemed to be confused about why they were running away from the island while Vivi was explaining that they had only stopped into this town to get supplies. Their actual destination was elsewhere on the island. They would set sail from Nanohana to another spot and start their journey from there.

"Man! I never thought I'd see Ace here!" Luffy said gleefully not paying attention to anything going on around them any longer. Iris wasn't sure she had ever seen Luffy look so happy. Whoever this man was he had to have a deep connection to Luffy. Once they were back to the Going Merry he'd have to give them an explanation.

They arrived at the ship and loaded up all of their supplies and set sail after Vivi sent Karoo to her father with a message. When asked about the man's identity Luffy explained that the man was his brother. Luffy had a brother? And they ran into him on Alabasta of all places? What a strange coincidence.

Luffy explained that his brother, Ace, was three years older than himself and super strong. Growing up Luffy wasn't able to beat Ace once despite the fact that Luffy had eaten a devil fruit and Ace hadn't at that point. That had to mean that Ace was ridiculously strong if Luffy hadn't ever been able to beat him, because she thought Luffy was monstrously strong.

"I could probably beat him now though!" Luffy claimed.

"You could beat who, now?" Ace asked as he jumped up on the ship and knocked Luffy off of the spot he was sitting on. Rather than getting mad for getting knocked down like Iris would have Luffy just laughed. He was so excited to see his brother than he could hardly contain himself.

Iris observed the man as he thanked them for taking care of his little brother. He was quite cute, though she didn't typically care for skinny guys like he was. He was muscular, but had a narrower build. He had a confident air, freckles across his cheeks and nose, about him and a confident smirk on his face.

"Anyway... I came here to ask you something Luffy. Join Whitebeard's crew with me. Your friends can, of course, come as well. You will all be welcomed," Ace offered.

"No way!" Luffy answered. Not that Iris would have thought he'd answer any differently, but she wouldn't have joined Whitebeard. She didn't know much about the famed pirate other than that he was one of the Four Emperors that ruled the second half of the Grand Line, but the only person she'd agree to follow was Luffy. She wouldn't become anybody else's subordinate.

"D-D-Does that mean the mark on your back is r-r-real?" Usopp asked nervously as he hid behind Iris.

"Yep, it's my pride and joy! Whitebeard is the greatest pirate I've ever met. I'm going to make him the Pirate King. Not you, Luffy," Ace stated.

"That's okay. I'll just fight him too," Luffy replied.

"You say that like it'll be easy..." Iris said with a sigh. Even if she didn't know much about Whitebeard she knew he wouldn't be somebody Luffy would be able to easily go toe-to-toe with in a battle. Not to mention Whitebeard surely had a large command over many different ships. They had a long way to go before they'd be able to take on somebody like that.

Ace laughed at Luffy's statement as if he expected Luffy to say that, and tossed a piece of paper at Luffy. It was a blank piece of paper that Ace said would make it so they could find each other again, though none of them seemed to understand how a blank piece of paper could lead Luffy to Ace again.

As Luffy and Ace continued talking for a moment Iris could easily see now that Luffy definitely looked happier now than she had ever seen him. Luffy was typically a pretty happy guy, but the smile on his face was radiating with a joy she hadn't seen before. It was obvious to them all how much Ace meant to him and how much he respected Ace. Ace had to be a fairly outstanding person to get such a strong and genuine reaction from Luffy.

"Having such a reckless little brother causes me stress. I know he can be a handful to keep track of, but thank you all for taking care of my little brother. I hope you guys will continue to watch out for him," Ace said.

Ace then explained that he was currently searching after a subordinate that had committed the ultimate crime; this person had killed another member of the crew. Ace had to deal with this person, and that was the only reason he had come back to the beginning of the Grand Line. The next time they met up with Ace would be when they had arrived to the second half of the Grand Line.

And then, just as suddenly as Ace appeared, he was gone. Luffy seemed somewhat sad to be having to say goodbye to his brother so quickly after their reunion. Iris thought that after having not seeing each other for three years that Ace might want to stay and catch up a bit, but apparently that wasn't the case.

"You looked really happy to see your brother Luffy," Iris mentioned as the watched Ace sail out of sight.

"Yeah," Luffy said with a grin as he looked at the piece of paper in his hand from Ace.

"I'm glad we got to meet him. He's nothing like you, though," Iris said.

"I'm glad too!" Luffy responded.

The others were all somewhat surprised at Ace's demeanor as well. He really was nothing like Luffy. He seemed responsible, thoughtful, and intelligent. Iris was glad to be sailing with Luffy as he was, but she wouldn't complain if he learned to be a little more responsible and thoughtful.

They continued on to their destination as fast as their ship could take them. Nami ended up sewing the piece of paper from Ace into Luffy's hat, while Usopp talked on about how ferocious Whitebeard was. He had heard the rumors about the legendary man and had made him out to be a big monster in his head. It really wasn't surprising that he was getting all worked up over a man that they wouldn't likely come into contact with for a long time, though she still found it obnoxious.

As they sailed Iris pulled away from the group and made her way to the girls' room and dug through her belongings. She didn't have much money left over from what she had earned at Baratie, but she should have enough to pay Nami back for the makeup to cover her tattoo with. At least her money was being spent on something that she should be able to use again; there was probably going to be another time in the future where she would want to hide her identity as a pirate.

She grabbed the money and looked at her reflection in the mirror before heading back out of the room. She had already gotten used to the tattoo on her chest and so it looked strange to see her reflection without it. There was also the ridiculous clothing that she was wearing reflecting back at her. Though honestly it didn't look as bad on her as she had made it out to be in her head.

When she headed back outside the others were standing near Vivi and listening to her talking. Iris handed the money to Nami, and agreed they were even now with a sigh and seemed quite disappointed that Iris had paid her back already. Iris had expected a comment about interest being added to the purchase like she had done to the others any time they had borrowed money, but no such comment was made. That left Iris to believe that she had already given Nami more than the makeup had cost, but she didn't really care as long as she wasn't in debt to Nami.

Iris turned her attention to Vivi and found out that the crew was headed to Yuba to stop the rebellion. That was where the rebel base should be according to the information she had. Luffy was gearing up for a fight already and going on about kicking the ass of the rebel leader. Vivi wasn't happy with Luffy talking like that because she was determined to settle the matter as civilly as possible. She wanted to save everybody without violence.

The others seemed to be standing behind Vivi's resolve, but it didn't seem likely to Iris that things could pan out that way. There would definitely be violence wherever Baroque Works was concerned, and also the fact that a civil war was being waged in the country. It was a nice thought to think that everything could be solved without any blood shed, but that didn't seem a likely outcome. It was incredibly naive to think that way.

Iris was tempted to voice her opinion on the matter, but that would only kill the atmosphere around them. Vivi would certainly have to deal with it at some point; there wasn't really a point in bringing it up right then if it would become apparent eventually. All bringing up her opinion would do was upset Vivi, and Nami would surely lecture her for saying something that upset the princess.

Holding in a sigh Iris turned her attention towards the front of the ship and to where they were headed. She let her hair down from the ponytail it was always in and let her hair fall down her neck and back. She preferred having her hair up and out of the way, but figured that her hair would help block the sun from her neck and shoulders. She really wasn't a fan of this aired climate. Even sailing on the waters outside the island it was hotter and less humid than she was used to or preferred.

When they finally found a spot to dock the boat near what Vivi was saying was their destination they all climbed out of the boat; they would have to walk about half a day before they would reach Yuba to stop the rebellion. This town, which Vivi had referred to as the Green Town, was anything but green. It was dried up and lifeless. Quite frankly it was a depressing plot of land.

Iris followed her friends and jumped over the side of the boat and landed on the rocky ground. The first thing she saw after hitting the ground was Usopp getting beat up by some animal. She couldn't help but laugh as Vivi shouted for Usopp to get away from the animals. They were seal/turtle hybrid looking animals that were apparently martial artists and were quite strong.

"Martial arts, huh? Let's see what they've got then," Iris said with a grin as she planted her feet firmly on the ground and bent her knees slightly. She hadn't met an animal that did martial arts before; the Grand Line sure had interesting creatures living in it!

"No,wait, Iris! We don't have time for this. If you beat them then they will want to become your students," Vivi explained.

"Too late..." Nami pointed out as she looked at Luffy who was beating the animals up. Iris shook her head as she let out a small laugh. Granted she had wanted to do what Luffy was doing now, but for different reason. She wanted to fight with the animals and see what they were capable of while he just wanted to fight. Luffy was always in the mood to be fighting with someone or something.

The animals were now lining up to have Luffy show them how to fight and looking at him like he was a hero. It was quite cute to watch the animals look up at him with such adoring expressions. Even animals couldn't resist Luffy.

"Come on, Luffy! The princess says we don't have time for this," Iris called out.

"The dugongs say Luffy can't go. Of if he goes they go with him since he's their master now," Chopper stated.

Iris had forgot they had somebody among them that could speak with animals. Chopper had translated for Karoo earlier, but it was still a strange occurrence to be able to communicate with animals now. She could kind of communicate with sea creatures, but it wasn't through words. She had learned over the years to read their body language and movements, and to be able to mimic those motions. That was still a far stretch from actually being able to understand what they had to say or them understanding her. Chopper being able to communicate with different animals seemed like something that would be handy along their journey.

"Okay... Well we have to take the princess now, so I guess we can just leave Luffy behind with his new students," Iris teased.

"What? No way!" Luffy shouted as he realized he might miss out on some action if left behind.

"We can't possibly take all those animals along with us..." Vivi pointed out politely.

"She's right Luffy. Let's go. Now," Nami stated in a flat tone on voice. When Nami used that voice it meant she was annoyed and/or angry at somebody's behavior and was about to do something about it. Considering that Nami was probably the weakest among them the others tended to fall into place if she was angry. Perhaps if Iris started hitting them every time she felt like it they'd react to her like that as well; she thought she just might have to try that theory out at some point.

"They still insist that they're coming with him..." Chopper said.

Finally they were able to convince the dugongs to stay behind by giving them some of their food. Sanji was annoyed about having to give away half of their food supply, but at least they were on their way and the animals were staying behind them.

They were finally starting their journey into the desert country of Alabasta. It was a little strange to think that they were helping stop a civil war, especially since they were pirates, but Iris supposed it was the right thing to do. She wanted to help Vivi and her country out, but that didn't mean it wasn't a strange thing for a group of pirates to do. It was probably best not to think too hard about the matter and to just go along with everything.

"Come on Iris, you're lagging," Nami called out over her shoulder and Iris pulled herself out of her thoughts. Sure enough the others were all walking ahead of her, and so she quickened her pace to catch up with them. She wasn't going to have time to space out and get lost in her thoughts for the rest of their journey. She needed to stay focused on the journey ahead of them, and that was all.


	24. Chapter 24

Iris found out that while she had been lost in thought Vivi had explained that this town used to be a lot greener than it currently was. The country hadn't seen rain in three years, and that was why everything was in the state it was in. The drought was unusual even for a desert country.

The only place that consistently saw rainfall was the capital where the royal palace was. The people of Alabasta referred to the rainfall as the "King's Miracle," until one day when some dance powder was found being carried to the palace.

"What's dance powder?" Iris asked.

"It's also known as the powder that calls rain..." Nami explained.

"So why is that a bad thing?" Luffy asked.

Apparently the reason it was a bad thing was that although it created rain where it was needed it caused a drought to countries downwind. It was called dance powder because people danced with joy at the rain, but it caused such a big problem for neighboring lands that it was ruled illegal by the World Government. Wars were started over the dance powder, and it was considered a very dangerous weapon now.

The king, Vivi's dad, had been framed by Crocodile to look as if he was using the dance powder to create rain in the capital. Iris could understand why that would cause people to distrust the king, and it also helped make sense of the civil war that was about to start. It was an awful thing to do, but it probably wasn't all that surprising of a thing for a pirate of Crocodile's strength to do. Most pirates were only out for themselves, and so if they had the strength to overthrow a nation why wouldn't they?

Even if Iris could understand the logic behind why a person would do something it didn't mean she could stand by idly and watch it happen. She was glad to be following a man like Luffy who wasn't a stereotypical pirate. Luffy would never dream of doing something so awful as this; he wanted nothing more than to go on a grand adventure and to be free. Because he wanted to be free to live a life the way he wanted he would stand up for things that he found to be right. Crocodile trying to take over Vivi's country was tremendously wrong in Luffy's opinion, and so he was going to stop it. Plain and simple. There was also the fact that he enjoyed a good a fight and liked to test out his strength against strong opponents, but that was beside the point.

Iris knew things wouldn't pan out so simply once the fight started, but she knew that Luffy would stop Crocodile and that she would be at his side to help along with the others. She would use all of her strength to help this country because it was the right thing to do, and hopefully stay out of sight of the navy. She knew that she'd become distracted by them again if she came face to face with them. When the navy became involved she seemed to lose all reasoning; it brought back all of those emotions and memories of her dad being taken away from her. She might even snap and not be able to control herself like she had in Little Garden and Chopper's home island. She didn't want that to happen at all.

Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp were now walking ahead of them heading straight for the desert. The three of them were particularly angry about Vivi's story and what Crocodile had done. It struck Iris as odd that Usopp was up there leading the way with as afraid as he was of everything, but she was glad to see the kid showing a strong emotion other than fear.

She walked on along with everybody and tried not to focus on the heat being reflected off the desert sand. Her skin felt as though it was going to blister and burn off at any second; she felt miserable walking through this scorching heat. She couldn't let herself complain though. Complaining wouldn't do her any good or make her feel any more comfortable.

Luffy's anger at Crocodile had now turned into discomfort, and poor Chopper looked like he was on the edge of passing out. Between having only ever being on a winter island and having a thick fur coat he had to be the most miserable of all of them. She definitely couldn't complain when he was so much more miserable than she was.

The only one that didn't look miserable was Vivi, but that made sense. She grew up on this island after all. She was surely distracted by everything going on in her country right now as well. Thinking about Baroque Works, Crocodile, and the rebellion probably took up so much of her thought process that she didn't have enough room in her brain to worry about the heat.

At this point Luffy was starting to whine almost constantly. He was thirsty. He was hungry. He wanted a break. At one point a fight broke out over him taking what was deemed too large of a drink of water. They had maybe been walking for an hour at this point, and if he couldn't get it together this was going to be a long journey. They still had a long way to walk according to Vivi.

"Sanji! Let's eat our pirate lunches!" Luffy shouted.

"Not until Vivi says so," Sanji responded.

"We're not even a quarter of the way through the desert, Luffy," Vivi said politely.

"But I wanna eat!" Luffy whined and continued talking about some made up ancient proverb about eating when one was hungry. It was comical to the point where Iris was actually somewhat distracted from the heat.

Vivi finally suggested that they take a break and eat something when they reach the next rock. That made Luffy happy enough and gave him something to look forward to, and so his whining subsided a bit.

"You seem to be holding up better than I thought you would," Nami said as she walked next to Iris.

"Why didn't you think I'd hold up?" Iris asked.

"Well the whole being half fishman and liking the water thing is kind of the exact opposite of being in the desert," Nami said.

"I would prefer to be in the water, but I think the same could be said for all of you right now. I'm just trying not to focus on how uncomfortable I am," Iris explained plainly. Her mouth was dry as she talked and made her not want to talk at all. She wasn't sure how Luffy was able to complain without his tongue feeling like it would dry up and turn to dust.

The two girls kept walking next to each other without talking. Iris wouldn't admit it, but she ready to find some rocks and take a break to eat. Maybe the rocks would even provide some shade to sit in for a few moments before resuming their journey. Her feet hurt and she wished that she was wearing sandals; her feet were sweating and making her shoes ridiculously uncomfortable on her feet.

Finally Usopp spotted some rocks in the distance, and Luffy started running as fast as he could to the rocks while dragging their supplies along with him. With as much complaining as he had been doing up until now Iris was amazed that he still had the energy to move so fast.

The rest of them didn't follow at such high speeds; it was better to conserve their energy and walk their at their current pace. Luffy obviously gave no thought to conserving energy because he was suddenly running back towards them carrying on about something.

"Chopper! There are a bunch of dying birds! You have to come heal them quick!" Luffy shouted when he close enough that they'd hear him.

"Ok!" Chopper shouted back and started to run towards the rocks. He suddenly had a burst of energy thinking about his skills as a doctor being needed and started running, while Vivi froze in place with a horrified look on her face.

"Hurry back to our stuff! Those birds aren't sick; they're trying to steal everything!" she shouted at Luffy. The birds apparently would prey on people wandering through the desert by playing sick or dead so that the people would either let their guards down or go for help, and it worked perfectly on Luffy.

Iris ran after Luffy and Chopper forgetting about conserving energy. They couldn't afford to let their belongings be stolen by a bunch of stupid birds. The food was one thing, but they needed that water. In heat like this dehydration was a significant threat that could easily kill somebody.

Unfortunately none of them were able to catch up with the birds. Angry at the situation Iris picked up a piece of rock that had fallen away from the rock structure and threw it at one of the birds as it flew off. She managed to hit the bird and ran to where the bird fell to.

The sack that this bird was carrying was rather small and only contained a lunch for one person, though there it could probably be split among a few people since it was all they had now. She sighed as she brought the food to where all the others were now sitting in the shade of the rocks.

Sanji was taking the theft of their belongings the worst. Granted he was the one who had prepared the food and packed it all up and he took great pride in making sure that they were all taken care of as far as nourishment went, and now his hard work had been thrown out the window. His food being eaten by a bunch of thieving birds was a knock on his pride.

"I managed to get this back. Here," she said as she tossed the food to Sanji. She was frustrated enough that she had no desire to eat the food any longer, and she really wished that the bird she had hit had had some of their water rather than food.

"You got some of it back? You're so great," Sanji cooed as his demeanor completely changed. Had it been one of the boys that had brought back such a small sack of food he probably would have yelled at them for bringing something so worthless back, but he wouldn't think so little of her. Between the stress of having their belongings stolen by those stupid birds and having the blistering heat of the desert zap her energy away she couldn't make herself care about his double standards at that moment.

"Sorry it's not more," she responded.

"It's better than what this idiot was able to get back; he didn't get anything. How come you're making a lady work so hard to get our stuff back?" Sanji yelled at Luffy. "What would you like to eat from this? Since you got it back you should be able to choose first," Sanji continued, but in a much calmer and kinder voice as he turned back to her.

"I'm fine. There's not enough for all of us, so let the others eat," she answered.

"You really should eat..." Sanji said as he looked at the food he had prepared. She knew turning down his food was a hit to his pride even more than it being stolen by the birds, but she really thought the others should eat before her. She might regret that decision later, but for now she was too frustrated to eat.

"I'll eat! I'm hungry!" Luffy shouted as he tried to grab the food away from Sanji. Luffy trying to get the food sparked another fight between the two of them. It was stupid to waste their energy fighting with each other, but she wasn't about to get in the middle of it. Instead she sat down in a shaded spot to collect her thoughts and get ready for the next leg of their journey.

She wasn't hardly able to do so, though, because Luffy was making a racket again. This time he saw some of the thieving birds hanging out near them. The stupid birds came back to mock them, and he took off running after him. Nami and Usopp were both concerned about Luffy getting lost chasing the birds, but their fears about losing him were short lived. He was suddenly running back at them yelling.

The reason for his yelling was a giant lizard creature running behind him. This lizard could put some of the dinosaurs they had seen back in Little Garden to shame with its size. There was also an animal that was running next to him that she realized was a camel as it got closer.

Iris instinctively stood back up and started running at the lizard. She wasn't sure why Luffy was running away from it rather than fighting it, but now was a good time to try out the new move she had come up with while they were sailing to Alabasta. She took what she had learned from Zoro with the sword training and had attempted to create a blade with water. And now since her whole body was sweating she had plenty of water at her disposal.

She ran her hands along her sweaty arms to get the water on her hands and then put her arms together in the shape of an "X" in front of her body. She hoped the technique would work, because this was the first time trying it out other than in practice. She'd look pretty stupid if it didn't.

As she got close enough to the lizard she used the momentum she had built up in her running to continue a few steps running up the lizard's neck, and moved her arms in a slashing motion letting the water be released off her hands like a blade. The water actually did cut into the lizard's neck and left a fairly large "X" shaped slash in the creature's neck.

She grinned as she pushed off from the lizard's neck with her feet and back flipped onto the ground. Sanji, Zoro, and Luffy had all also attacked the animal and between all of their combined strength the lizard never stood a chance. And now Iris had a new move to add to her repertoire of skills. This one wasn't martial arts based by any means, but it was something that would work on creatures much larger than she, whereas her martial arts weren't as well suited to creatures so much larger than she was.

"Hey Sanji! Can we eat this?!" Luffy shouted excitedly as he looked at the dead lizard. Sanji thought it was probably edible, and so he got to work on trying to prepare the meat. Luffy shouted out in glee as he realized he was going to get to eat his fill of food shortly.

Iris was more excited about the success of her new move than she was about eating. She hadn't really doubted that she could pull the move off, but having only ever done it in practice made her unsure of how effective it would be. She had only ever practiced it in the water too. While they were sailing she developed the move while she was submerged deep down in the ocean, and it had a much greater effect when she was underwater. She had practiced it as well above water, but she had been floating on the surface of the water and so she had a much greater amount of water at her disposal.

The only thing about the execution this time was that she did find it slightly gross that she had used her own sweat to pull off the move. Though she supposed if it worked it worked. It wasn't as if the lizard cared what kind of water he was cut with. All that mattered was that she had come up with a new move that would help her fight different kinds of foes more effectively.

She looked back over to where Sanji was working on the lizard meat and saw the he was cooking the meat on the rocks. This stupid desert was hot enough that things could be cooked on the rocks. She hadn't imagined ever going to place that was this hot; though she hadn't imagined going to a winter island either. This journey was showing her a whole lot of new things, and would probably continue to do so.

As she smelled the lizard meat cooking her stomach started to growl. Apparently she was more hungry than she had thought she was. Sanji must have heard her stomach growling because he looked up to her and smiled at her. She walked closer to where he was cooking the meat and offered him some help if he needed any.

"I've got it, but thanks," he responded to her offer to help. "You're not still mad at me over the outfit?" he continued.

"I'm too hot right now to be mad about these awful clothes," she said, and he grinned. He seemed to realize that this was as close as she'd get to saying she wasn't angry with him any longer, and he seemed pretty alright with that. She wasn't somebody who would readily apologize for her behavior to anybody, and so she was glad that he seemed to understand that. Honestly she thought he was too willing to forgive her for her angry outbursts and impatient behavior towards him, but she knew that wasn't something she should complain about.

As they were standing there Sanji asked her about the attack that she had done on the lizard; he hadn't seen that one before and he thought it was cool. She couldn't stop a smile from forming on her face at the mention of her newly created move. She hadn't figured that anybody would notice it, but she was quite glad that somebody had.

She explained briefly that she had come up with the idea after training on the sword with Zoro that she thought she could probably use water to create a blade similarly to how she could shoot water off of her fingers like bullets, and then went on to tell him a little about how she had practiced the move as they sailed towards Alabasta.

"Where did you find water to use that skill in the middle of the desert?" Sanji asked.

"Oh... Uh..." she mumbled as her face turned red. "It's kinda gross... But..." she continued and put her hands to her face. She wiped away the sweat that was building up on her face and then held her hands so he could see where she had found the water for the attack.

She figured that he would be grossed out at finding out that she was sweaty enough to produce a weapon, but rather he informed her that he thought it was great that she was able to be so resourceful. She was still embarrassed, but was oddly relieved that he didn't find her disgusting.

As she stood there talking to Sanji she realized that she was actually enjoying herself. While he definitely angered her more than any of the others on the crew she found that she could also quite enjoy his company. She definitely felt more camaraderie towards the cook after their adventure on Chopper's home island, but she hadn't necessarily thought about whether she might actually like him as a person.

Realizing that was actually somewhat comforting to her. It meant that she was growing and becoming more patient and accommodating. Had somebody told her that she would think about wanting to build a friendship with Sanji the day they had first met she probably would have laughed in their face. While she was still in no means a trusting or patient person it was evident that she was starting to change. She knew she had been starting to change and was a happier person, but this was even more so than she had thought.

She stood there chit chatting with him until the food was done cooking. Sanji gladly gave her some food, and she then offered to hand some out to Nami and Vivi too since she knew he'd make sure that the girls ate first. As they all ate the lizard meat their attention was turned onto the camel that was still with them.

"Where'd the camel come from?" Nami asked.

"I dunno. He was running from the lizard and I started running too. I'll bet we can ride this thing!" Luffy said.

"Does the camel have anything to say?" Iris asked Chopper as she looked at him.

Chopper looked at the camel and nodded his head as the camel made noises at him. When the camel stopped making noises Chopper translated that the Camel was passing through the desert when the lizard started chasing it. He would let them ride him, but only the women. He didn't like men.

The boys didn't like the camel's instructions about who could and couldn't ride him, and immediately started to beat up the poor animal. Iris could have predicted the boys' reactions, but she couldn't understand why Sanji was upset when the camel was acting just as he would have if he was the camel.

Iris pulled the boys away from the animal after thumping them all on the back of the head for the poor camel. She instructed them to leave the animal alone and told Sanji that she thought he should understand the camel's affinity for women.

While the boys continued to glare at the camel Nami took advantage of the camel's tastes and started petting it while trying to decide on what to call the animal. The boys had some less than flattering ideas, and Nami ignored them. She decided on Eyebrows for the camel's name. Iris thought it was a stupid name, but the Camel was so infatuated with Nami that it didn't matter what she called it.

"You two will have to decide who else can ride Eyebrows..." Nami said to Vivi and Iris as she climbed up onto the camel. Vivi turned down the offer saying she was still fine to walk, and Iris almost did the same out of stubbornness, but decided instead to climb up onto the camel's back after making sure that Vivi was positive that she didn't want to ride the camel.

Once she had climbed onto the camel she started to tell Vivi that she would trade off with her in awhile, but wasn't able to finish her sentence due to Nami instructing the camel to go. The camel took off running and left the others behind them in the dust; this was the quickest movement they had made since entering the desert. Having an animal that was used to this climate with them would prove to be useful; at least for the girls it would be useful.

"I'm surprised you got on Eyebrows. I figured you'd be too stubborn to get on, especially when Vivi turned the offer to ride him down," Nami said.

"I'm not that stubborn," Iris said. Nami had hit the nail on the head though. Iris almost didn't get on the camel because she felt weird taking an easier route to crossing the desert than the boys could have or with Vivi having turned down the offer for an easier trip. Having the princess walk while Iris leisurely rode the camel was weird.

"Yes you are. You're ridiculously stubborn," Nami retorted with a laugh. "I saw you talking with Sanji earlier. I take it you're no longer mad at him? I'm glad you're finally being friendly with him," Nami continued.

"Why do you care if I'm friendly with him of not?" Iris grumbled not really wanting to talk about the subject, but knew that she probably didn't have much of a choice. Iris had long since figured out that when Nami wanted information out of Iris that she wouldn't back off. Iris could feel her guard towards Nami slowly starting to fall and sometimes she actually even enjoyed talking with Nami.

"Don't get so defensive. I'm making an observation about a change that's happened to you. That's all. It's a good thing, actually. Is this all because of what happened back at Drum Island? I never did hear all the details about that," Nami said.

Iris hadn't heard the island referred to as Drum Island before, but she assumed that Nami was talking about Chopper's home island. Iris had told Nami enough about her having to rescue Sanji because he had sacrificed himself to save them, but apparently Nami thought she was missing out on something. Iris wasn't sure what exactly Nami was fishing for.

"Oh come on, Iris. Your attitude towards Sanji did a 180 after whatever happened. _Did_ anything happen?" Nami asked in a very implicative and suspicious tone, and Iris felt her face turn bright red. Nami should know that nothing could have happened. Nami was the only one that knew about her feelings about Zoro, and since she knew about Iris' feelings towards Zoro she should also be fully aware that nothing could or would ever happen between Iris and another man.

"I can't believe that you, of all people, would say that. You know very well that nothing happened! He saved our lives, and I repaid the favor by saving his life too. I mean, if he's willing to sacrifice his life to save us without any hesitation he can't be that bad of a person. I figured I should give him a chance. That's it. There's nothing more to it," Iris explained trying to not sound as flustered as she felt.

Iris wasn't sure why Nami's question bothered her so much because nothing had happened or would ever happen. Was it because she had been so stubborn about not liking the cook before? She really shouldn't be this embarrassed though; it was ridiculous.

"Oh. Well if that's all that's rather boring. I'm glad you're getting along with him though. It's best if we can all get along," Nami said.

They continued on for awhile and Nami praised the camel for doing his best to take them to Yuba. The camel was eating up Nami's compliments and held his head high as he carried them with pride. It was rather humorous that this animal was so infatuated with Nami, and even more humorous that Nami was not above taking advantage of the stupid animal in the least.

Finally the boys and Vivi caught up with them. Iris was feeling somewhat rested after having ridden the camel for a bit, and told Vivi to trade places with her. Vivi insisted she was fine, but Iris wouldn't take no for an answer. The princess should take a break and ride Eyebrows for awhile.

Vivi finally agreed to take a turn riding Eyebrows and Iris hopped down. Sanji and Zoro seemed to be taking the heat better than Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper were. They were, more than likely, suffering as much as the others from the heat, but they weren't the type to whine about things. She knew that Zoro's pride was what made him press on without complaining, and she assumed the reasoning was similar to for Sanji.

As they traveled on there were a few more giant creatures that appeared out of the sand, but they were all dealt with easily enough. The creatures were large, but nothing that they couldn't handle. The most difficult part of the journey was the environment, not the creatures.

The longer they walked the more irritable everybody seemed to be. They weren't talking among themselves much any longer; the only real noises being made were the grunts of Luffy and Usopp who didn't know how to contain their discomfort. It was annoying, but Iris was too uncomfortable, hot, and dehydrated to care about that.

At some point in their journey Usopp ended up collapsing, and Zoro threw the kid over his shoulder. His being able to do what needed to be done was rather admirable. It was too hot to add another's body heat to yourself, but he did it without hesitation. It's not that the rest of them wouldn't have done the same thing, but this reinforced once more why she cared for Zoro so much.

Finally the sun started to set and temperatures started to drop. The change in temperatures was quite welcome to all of them even with the wind starting to pick up and blow sand around. The extreme temperatures in a desert country were a strange thing to witness; extreme heat during the day was expected, but Iris hadn't realized that things would cool down to freezing temperatures at night. She honestly had only expected the desert to cool down slightly at night.

As the temperature rapidly started to decline with the setting of the sun Iris felt a shiver run through her body. The freezing temperatures seemed to make her body recall the pain of the frost bite she had experienced a few days ago, and she wasn't crazy about that. Still, with as hot as it had been all day she wouldn't complain about the current temperatures. Tomorrow when the heat came back she would surely wish for the freezing temperatures again.

The group became a little more talkative now that the heat was gone, and they seemed a bit more lively. Luffy was again complaining about being hungry, and Iris could feel her stomach starting to rumble as well. There wasn't anything that could be done about that right then, though.

Vivi declared that they were getting close to Yuba and hopped down from the camel. The sand was now really blowing around and Iris thought she could feel the ground trembling slightly under her feet. What was going on around them? Was another creature going to come at them?

"Look! I can see some lights! Yuba is up ahead!" Vivi announced.

There was so much sand kicking up at this point that Iris couldn't see any lights up ahead, but since Vivi was probably used to walking through conditions like this. Having grown up in the desert one would surely be used to sand storms.

Suddenly Vivi stopped walking and her eyes grew wide. There was something wrong ahead in the city. The trembling that Iris could feel under her feet was a full on rumbling of the earth now, and Vivi was gravely concerned about the city.

They were now close enough that they could see a giant sandstorm swallowing up the city. Vivi was visibly shaken at the sight, and Iris wasn't entirely sure if Vivi was going to be alright. Vivi looked completely heartbroken at the sight in front of her as she took off running towards the city. The princess couldn't possibly be broken by this, could she?

They all ran after Vivi and approached the city as the sand storm was dying down. This city didn't look any better than the last one they were in; it was a dried up place that showed very little signs of life. Thankfully it didn't look like anybody had been caught up in the sandstorm, though.

"Travelers, eh? You guys must be tired. Sorry the town is a little dried up at the moment, but we have plenty of inns you can stay in. That's what this town is known for, after all," an old man said from their side. He was digging in the sand; he must have been trying trying to uncover something that was buried in the sandstorm.

"Excuse me... I heard the rebellion was based here?" Vivi asked while attempting to hide her face from the old man.

"What do you want with that damn group?!" the old man yelled in rage. He continued to yell about how awful and disrespectful that the rebellion garbage were. Had the rebellion caused a problem in this city to make the old man this angry? The amount of anger in his was enormous and seemed to be on a personal level to the old man.

"Those fools... They're not here anymore..." the old man stated, and then continued to explain the current situation of the town. Since the drought started about three years ago these sandstorms had become common place. They were a much more frequent phenomenon than they used to be, and so the town has dried up. The rebellion needed a good circulation of goods to be able to prep for the war they were waging, and so they moved their base to someplace called Katorea.

"Katorea?" Vivi said in a tone that Iris didn't like. There was shock and disappointment in Vivi's voice that told Iris that this Katorea place wasn't close by. They had just walked all the way here for nothing, or at least that was Iris' assumption at this point.

"Vivi, where's that?" Luffy asked, and Iris' fears were confirmed. Katorea was all the way back where they started near Nanohana. They had traveled through the desert heat for nothing. It wasn't as if they could have known better, but Iris was still struggling to accept they had walked all this way for nothing.

"Should we keep walking through the night while it's still cool outside?" Iris asked. She didn't really have a desire to keep walking at the moment, but if they rested for the night then they would have to walk through the heat of the day again tomorrow.

"No, we should stay here for the night. We need to rest," Nami said.

As Nami and Iris were discussing what should be done Iris could hear Luffy quickly backtracking about having called the princess Vivi. Was Vivi's cover blown now? This could be bad. What would they do if her cover was blown? Would the old man freak out about the princess being here? He was a supporter of the king from what he had said, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't spread that the princess was here to others. It would best for them if nobody knew they were in the country. They needed to delay Baroque Works from finding out they were here as long as the possibly could.

"Mr. Toto?" Vivi then said as she stepped past Luffy who was still trying to convince the old man that Vivi wasn't a princess or anything. Vivi had tears in her eyes as she walked closer to the old man and gave him a big hug. So this man was somebody she knew? Why hadn't she recognized him before now?

As the two chit chatted for a moment Iris looked over her crew mates. The toll walking through the blistering desert all day had take on them was showing. She was sure she looked tired too, though she was trying her best keep it hidden just how tired she felt especially since she had been able to ride on the camel for part of the trip.

When the old man and Vivi ended their catching up with each other he showed them to an inn where they would be able to sleep for the night. They were given one big room for their group to sleep in, and so they all piled into the room.

Everybody was so tired that they barely had the energy to talk among themselves at this point in the night. Sanji made an attempt to let Vivi share a sleeping space with him, though he was quickly turned down. Sanji and Usopp argued for a bit, but even they were tired enough that it didn't last long.

Iris climbed into a bed an thought sleep would come quickly to her, but unfortunately she was wrong. Not only was she concerned about having a night terror and waking the others up, but there was also the issue of her body being too restless to be still. She was frustrated with having walked all this way and wanted to keep going through the night despite knowing that everybody, including herself, needed some rest.

She was tossing and turning, and knew she was going to wake everybody else up. Once she thought that everybody was asleep she quietly snuck outside and leaned against the building as she sat down. The temperature had continued to drop since the last time she was outside, but she didn't really care about that at the moment.

As she stat out in the cold she let her mind wander through the events of the day. It was nice to have a moment to herself to reflect on the day. It had been an eventful day. They had finally landed in Alabasta. Since landing in Alabasta they had met Luffy's older brother, managed to avoid encountering anybody from Baroque Works, traveled through the desert to Yuba, and found out they would have to travel all the way back across the desert in the morning.

As she thought about their run in with Ace she couldn't help but think about the navy being in Alabasta too. She had just about lost her composure completely when she realized they were here. Her hate for them was so deeply rooted that she couldn't think straight when she saw them. Even if these particular people probably weren't the ones who were responsible for her dad's arrest they all stood for the same thing. They arrested pirates indiscriminately; it didn't matter if the pirate was a good person or not. Not all pirates were bad people.

Still, she would need to learn to keep her emotions in check. If she went off loosing her cool every time she was faced with some marines she could put herself in jeopardy and end up arrested and not able to rescue her dad, put the others in danger because they would surely come after her if she was arrested, or even let her anger take over and let the monster inside of her come out.

She didn't want any of those outcomes to come to fruition, but she wasn't sure how she could learn to control her hate towards these people either. It would take a lot of concentrated effort to be able to be able to control that much hate and rage. Though she supposed that if she could learn some patience to deal with Sanji she could learn to control her anger towards the navy.

When her thoughts turned towards Sanji her mind became jumbled. There was still a lot she didn't like about the cook, but she was also finding a few likable qualities in him. He was a truly kind and caring individual, and he took great pride in making sure that they were all kept healthy through his food. He would make snide comments about giving the guys less quality of food, but from what Iris could see the only real difference was the presentation of the food. He took much greater care in making sure the girls' food was appealing to the eye.

What she couldn't wrap her mind around was why she had gotten so flustered when Nami asked her about if anything had happened on Drum Island between herself and Sanji. Nothing had happened or would ever happen. Her heart was already taken by another man, and Nami knew that. But then why did she get so upset? She could say with certainty that she didn't have any sort of romantic feelings towards Sanji.

The only explanation she could come up with was her being stubborn. She had stubbornly decided she couldn't stand Sanji after her first interaction with him and had made that known to the others. Now that was all changing. The problem was that she didn't really think that was the only thing at play as to why she had gotten so upset; she just couldn't figure out what was so upsetting to her.

"Couldn't sleep?" she heard a voice say from behind her. She whipped around ready to attack, but stopped when she saw Vivi standing there. The girl had a half hearted smile on her face that wasn't doing much to hide how exhausted she was. Vivi probably hadn't slept soundly or even very much since she infiltrated Baroque Works a few years back.

Thinking about all that Vivi had been through for the past couple of years starting at such a young age made Iris think about her own life and how her troubles seemed so small in comparison. She wanted to save her dad, one person, and here was Vivi trying to save an entire kingdom. The burden sitting on this girl's shoulders was enormous, and yet she was handling it like a pro. Iris figured she could probably learn a lot from this girl.

"Nope. You couldn't either I take it?" Iris asked, and Vivi shook her head no. "How does it feel to finally back in Alabasta?" Iris continued.

"It feels very surreal. I keep wondering when I'm going to wake up from this dream, but I'm not dreaming. I'm actually home. I can't rest easy though. I have to stop the rebellion. I just have to reveal to them that Crocodile is our real enemy. Then this war will stop," Vivi said after a long pause.

"What will you do if they don't listen to you?" Iris asked hoping her question wasn't too antagonizing. It probably wasn't the most appropriate question, but she was quite curious if the princess had some sort of back up plan or if this was it. A back up plan was typically a necessity.

When Vivi didn't answer Iris started backtracking on her question figuring that her question had been too insensitive after all. Vivi stopped her from taking back her question though, and had a new determined look in her eyes. Iris quite liked the look in Vivi's eyes right then. Somebody in a leadership position like Vivi was being born a princess needed to be somebody that people would follow. The determination in Vivi's eyes right now made Iris want to follow Vivi along this journey, and it would surely have the same effect on others.

Now it was Vivi's turn to ask Iris an uncomfortable question. She asked Iris why she kept all of the others at an arm's length away from her. Iris denied doing so, but deep down she knew it was true. She was trying so hard to completey let her guard down with her crew mates, but it was hard. She tried to pretend that she didn't keep a barrier up between herself and the others hoping that it would just go away, but if it was obvious to Vivi what she was doing it was surely obvious to her friends as well.

"If you don't want to talk about it with me I understand. I just thought you might want to know they've all noticed it... I'm not sure why they don't ask you themselves. I can't figure it out though... Everybody gets along so well and there are times I've watched you let yourself be one of them and everybody was so happy to be acting like one big happy family, but then most of the time you keep your distance. Why do you do that?" Vivi asked.

Iris sighed at the realization that she really hadn't made as much progress as she had thought she had in letting her walls down around humans, and unfortunately that also included her friends that she held very dear. She had thought for sure after fighting against Arlong and his crew and seeing that fishmen didn't accept her as one of them either that she had been able to let go of her reservations in dealing humans; especially towards her friends. She apparently hadn't made as much progress as she had thought.

"You say I don't have to talk, but you keep asking questions. That's quite contradictory, princess," Iris said.

"See? You're doing it again. You continually call me princess rather than by my name. You keep me at a distance as well. I suppose being new and not part of your group I shouldn't ask you to consider me a friend, but..." Vivi started, but Iris cut her off.

"You want to know why I keep humans at a distance? It's because of my father and despicably humans look at and talk about him. He's a full blooded fishman that I watched humans treat terribly my entire childhood. He was so thankful that I looked more like my mother and had fishman traits that I could hide, like the webbing between my fingers and toes and my big shark teeth, so that I could live a more normal life. I hated that; I wanted to be just like him," Iris said.

"Then after having giving up being a pirate for almost 15 years he was arrested. He was arrested by a bunch of humans, though more specifically the navy. The one person that I cared about and loved more than life itself was taken away from me by a bunch of humans. The same race that I watched day in and day out treat him like he was less than dirt had now ripped him out of my life. So yeah, I have some trust issues if that answers your questions," Iris continued.

Talking about these things made anger well up inside of her. The fact that anybody could rip apart a peaceful and happy family for things that had happened more than a decade prior, especially when nothing terrible had ever happened, was insane and unfair to say the least.

"What about your mother, then? She's a human?" Vivi asked.

"Was. She's dead. She died when I was still too young to remember her. All I can remember of her is from what I've heard from others and pictures I've seen. I've got her purple hair and green eyes and human form. She was a lot paler than I am," Iris responded trying to calm that rage that had started to build up in her once more.

"Oh... I'm sorry..." Vivi said seemingly at a loss for words.

"Don't be. I'm not sad when I think about her; she's a person I've heard about but it's not like I have any sort of attachment to her," Iris stated.

"So... If you hate humans so much why did you decide to travel with them?" Vivi asked changing the subject away from Iris' mother.

"You're so nosey. But I suppose it probably wouldn't hurt to tell you since I can't sleep and have nothing better to do. My only tie to my home island was my father's bar, and it was destroyed by some obnoxious pirates. Luffy asked me to join him, and since I needed a way to get to sea and find where my dad was I accepted his offer. And I liked Luffy. He's strong, he's determined, he's loyal, and he's genuinely a happy person. I keep hoping some of those qualities will rub off on me," Iris explained.

"And before you ask I do care for everybody else on the crew, not just Luffy. I've been wary of most of them at first, but I've grown to care for all of them. A lot. So it stings a bit that it's still so noticeable that I'm guarded. I've made a lot of progress, but I've still got a ways to go I guess," Iris continued.

"I'm sure they've all noticed your progress, Iris! That's probably why they don't say anything to you; they've seen how much you've let your guard down from where you started. I just couldn't notice because I haven't been traveling with you for very long," Vivi said trying to back peddle her way out of hurting Iris' feelings.

"It's okay. You pointed out something you noticed, and quite honestly I probably needed to hear it since none of them would have spoken up. I don't want to do anything that causes any of them to feel hurt or pushed aside by me. So, uh... Thanks," Iris said.

Vivi smiled at her, and she smiled back. While she was hurt by the realization that it wasn't evident how much effort she felt she had put in to letting her guard down, she was also somewhat glad that Vivi pointed it out to her. She didn't want to be an outsider on the crew, and she didn't want any of her crew mates to feel that she was pushing them away.

She knew that they accepted her as she was, but she was still carrying the burden of feeling different than them. She was also aware that they didn't care that she was half fishman, but there was that nagging voice in the back of her brain that always told her otherwise. That voice constantly told her that they knew she was different and a monster, and that they were just waiting for her to do something to confirm their suspicions.

That voice was why she was so desperate to not show the monstrous side of her that only Sanji knew about. If they knew she had a side she couldn't control they'd surely feel threatened or scared of her. The reality of the situation was that they'd want to help her just as Sanji had, but she was having a hard time convincing herself of that. She had a lot to think about such as how she was going to quiet the pessimistic voice in her head.

"Another thing I've noticed is that... Well, the only one you don't push away as much is Zoro. Why is that?" Vivi asked with a smile that said she already knew the answer to that question.

"I don't want to talk about that..." Iris grumbled as she felt her face turn red, and Vivi giggled.

"Just know that they all really do care for you, and they wouldn't change who you are," Vivi said reassuringly. Again, these were all things that Iris knew; they were just hard for her to accept. It was nice to hear nonetheless. She could feel a weight starting to lift from her shoulders as Vivi tried to help Iris and show that she cared for Iris even with only having known her for a short time.

The two kept talking for awhile until eventually they both fell asleep sitting outside against the inn where everybody else was sleeping. For once Iris had pleasant dreams. She had dreams of adventures with her friends and sailing the open seas. Her talk with Vivi had somehow lifted a burden that was shown as she slept that night. This would surely be a sign of significant progress in her heart in the days and weeks to come.


	25. Chapter 25

In the morning Iris woke up to see the rest of the crew standing over her and Vivi who were still sleeping outside. Apparently everybody woke up startled that both her and Vivi were missing, and they had been searching around for them. They really shouldn't been worried, but they were for whatever reason.

"What are you guys doing out here?" Nami asked sounding annoyed.

"I couldn't sleep so I came outside. Vivi couldn't sleep either, so she also came outside. We were talking and I guess we fell asleep. Is that so strange?" Iris asked as she stood up and swatted sand off of her clothing and out of her hair.

"For you, yeah. You're not exactly a social butterfly who would fall asleep talking to somebody," Nami said.

"Well, maybe I've decided I'm going to turn a new leaf and be more social," Iris retorted.

"You can always be more social with me, Iris!" Sanji inserted happily.

"Yeah, I figured as much," Iris responded.

Iris had slept much sounder than she had slept in awhile and it was nice. It made her not dread the trek through the desert that they had before them quite as much. It was already getting hot outside, but she was in a better mood. She hoped that the pleasant mood she was in would keep up as they traveled through the desert that day. It was going to be a long walk, but perhaps with her feeling well rested it wouldn't feel as long.

As they were preparing to leave Mr. Toto came to see them off and say goodbye. As he was telling Vivi and the rest of them goodbye he handed a small container of water to Luffy. Apparently while Vivi and Iris were outside talking Luffy had gone to help Mr. Toto dig for some water. He didn't make it far before he fell asleep, but Mr. Toto appreciated his efforts all the same. The old man seemed to believe that they would be able to stop the rebellion and impending war.

Sometime during the night Mr. Toto found some wet sand and managed to distill the water for them. That effort was meaningful to all of them, especially to Vivi and Luffy. They thanked him for the important gift and set off towards Katorea with the promise of stopping the rebellion.

As they left Yuba Iris asked Vivi how she knew Mr. Toto. It turned out that Mr. Toto was the father of the man leading the rebellion, and that same person leading the rebellion was a childhood friend of Vivi's. She knew them both very well. That meant that not only was Vivi trying carrying the weight of saving her country, but also trying to stop somebody near and dear to her from committing the crime of starting a war and trying to overthrow the current government system.

"Sounds like it's an even more complicated issue than it even appears," Iris said, and Vivi nodded her head. She was curious about the friendship between Vivi and the rebellion's leader, but decided not to ask right then. The sun was really beating down on her skin and it would be better to conserve her energy for when it was needed rather than wasting it on talking.

As they walked Luffy suddenly sat down and leaned against a shriveled up tree trunk saying that he quit. He was bored and wanted to go back. This was strange behavior for Luffy; he had already made his mind up to help Vivi long ago. There was also the fact that Iris knew Luffy was looking forward to getting to fight Crocodile. Getting to fight a Warlord was practically the only thing Luffy had talked about, other than food, since he found out he'd be getting an opportunity to fight one.

"Come on Luffy... Let's keep moving. It's too early in our day to take a break..." Iris said.

Luffy just shook his head no. Sanji also tried to get Luffy up and started pleading Vivi's case for her, and then proceeded to get angry when Luffy didn't appear to be listening or have any interest in what he had to say. The sudden change in behavior was similar to when the little girl back at Little Garden altered Luffy's behavior with her paints, but the little girl was not around and there was no paint. What was his problem now?

"Vivi... I want to beat the crap out of Crocodile, but what will stopping the rebellion do? That won't stop Crocodile," he started. He then went on to say that if all she wanted to do was stop the rebellion then they weren't particularly needed. Why would a bunch of pirates be beneficial to stopping a rebellion? She would have better luck doing that without them around.

His words hit the nail on the head. They had all been so concerned with stopping the rebellion and not thinking about anything else that they hadn't given much thought to what Crocodile would do if the rebellion stopped. She couldn't imagine that he wouldn't try to find another plan to make this country his own.

There was also that it was strange for a princess to be associating with a bunch of relatively no name pirates. After all, why would a princess be associating with a group of low lifes like them? Especially when the task at hand didn't involve them. There were not members of this country and had no ties to it. Taking out another pirate, on the other hand, seemed like something that was much more believable. If they shared the common goal of wanting to take out Baroque Works it would make sense of why the princess was hanging around them.

He continued to point out that the way she was doing things was naive. She wasn't willing to risk anybody's lives even though they were facing one of the Warlords and trying to stop a war that involved at least a million other people. This was something that Iris agreed with and had actually thought about when they sailed between Nanohana and the Green Town.

Iris was glad that Luffy had pointed this out. She thought she had been the only one to have those thoughts, and it definitely came better from Luffy than if she had said it. He was their captain, and so if he said it none of them could fight it too much. If she had said it the others probably would have thought she was just being negative and mean.

Nami started to interrupt, but surprisingly enough Sanji was the one who told her to wait. The look on his face said that he agreed with what Luffy was saying, and Zoro shared that same look. Nami, Usopp, and Chopper all looked somewhat more emotional about the situation, but that made sense. Chopper was a naive kid still, and both Nami and Usopp tended to be more sympathetic than the others.

Vivi was now enraged by Luffy's comments. She lost her temper completely and started screaming at Luffy about how it wasn't a bad thing to want nobody to die, and she even reached out and punched him in the face. Iris was a little taken aback by Vivi's loss of her composure because it was so out of character for Vivi, but at the same time she enjoyed seeing this side of the princess. Vivi tried so hard to retain her composure and to keep her feelings in check, and so seeing this side made the her seem more like a normal, imperfect person.

When Luffy struck Vivi back the others were having a hard time not stepping in stopping Luffy, but this needed to happen. It was strange to see Luffy hit somebody that she knew he considered a friend, especially when he was so much stronger than Vivi was. He must feel like this was needed though; if her happy-go-lucky captain was willing to go to an extreme like this there was something he felt needed to be accomplished.

They fought between themselves for awhile longer while continuing to scream at each other. Luffy finally shouted something about wanting Vivi to be willing to risk their lives as well because they were friends. The fact that they would all be willing to risk their lives here in Alabasta had apparently never occurred to Vivi, and she started crying at the realization.

Watching the scene unfold before her Iris realized that she wasn't the only one keeping people at an arm's length away; Vivi was doing the same exact thing. Their reasons for keeping people at a distance were different as could be, but they both did it all the same. Iris was afraid of being pushed away, while Vivi didn't want anybody to be harmed by her efforts. Vivi's reasoning seemed less selfish in Iris' opinion, but it was probably always a selfish decision to push people away that care about you.

"Look at you. You're the one that wants to kill him the most... Now tell me where Crocodile is," Luffy instructed as Vivi tried to stop her crying. He had a ferocious look in his eyes now; it was a expression that Iris welcomed. The look in his eyes meant that he wouldn't leave this island until Crocodile had been beaten. Baroque Works would be disbanded, and the country could try to go back to how it was before Crocodile intervened. When Luffy had this much determination in his eyes there was no stopping him, and she loved that.

"So... Do we know where Crocodile is at?" Iris asked.

"He should be in Rainbase," Vivi stated. He owned and ran a casino called Rain Dinners in the flourishing gambling town. There was plenty of water and food there despite the drought the country was facing. It was a very wealthy town because of all of the casinos, and there were tons of people that visited the city. It would take them a day or so to get there, but that was definitely the place that their opponent should be.

It was going to be a long trip as they would have to continue walking through the night, though they would still have to take a break at some point so that they wouldn't be too exhausted when they got to Rainbase to face Crocodile and Baroque Works. They didn't want to face one of the Warlords completely exhausted.

"Okay! Let's go find Crocodile so I can kick his ass!" Luffy shouted and started walking in the direction Vivi had pointed them in.

"You make that sound so simple..." Nami said with a sigh as they all fell in behind him walking towards Rainbase. The reality wasn't that Luffy necessarily thought Crocodile would be easy to beat, but rather that he never gave losing a thought. Losing wasn't an option, and Luffy was definitely the man for the job. That losing didn't even occur to him as an option was in part what made him somebody that was easy to follow.

Once again, as they walked through the desert, Iris was amazed at how miserable this climate was. She had thought today might be better if nothing else because she expected the blistering heat and she was well rested, but unfortunately for her she was just as miserable as she had been the day before. This country with such a harsh environment was a not a place she would want to call home; it was amazing to her that people continued living here.

One thing that was overly obvious was that neither Luffy or Usopp would last in an environment like this. They were both complaining to the point that everybody else was ready to punch them, but for whatever reason they all restrained. Iris figured it had to do with the heat; in temperatures like this any amount of extra effort such as smacking somebody seemed pointless. It was zapping away all of their energy.

Finally the sun started sinking beneath the horizon and the temperatures started to fall. As the temperatures fell the group perked up and started talking some more. Usopp and Luffy were still whining, but it wasn't to the extent it had been earlier in the day. Soon enough the temperatures would drop off to where they would all be uncomfortable again, but for now Iris was welcoming the change in temperature.

Before things got too cold out it was decided that they would take a break. Since the sun was no longer hanging over their heads they didn't need to worry about finding a spot with shade to stop at, and so they stopped where they were.

Iris sat down on the sand. Just like yesterday she could see the toll this country's environment was taking on everybody. There was a renewed fire in Luffy's eyes whenever he thought about beating up Crocodile though, and a different look to Vivi as well. She looked as though she had stopped wavering and had found a strong sense of resolution. This was enough for Iris to not complain; there was now a clear objective at hand.

As Iris tried to relax a bit so that her body could rest she felt somebody else sit on the sand behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see it was Zoro, who had now leaned back so that their backs were able to rest against each other and hold the other up at the same time. Since there were no rocks to lean up against at this resting spot it actually wasn't a bad idea, and she was more than glad to have him resting against her.

"How are you holding up?" she asked him as she let her eyes close.

"I'm fine. I'm tired of all this stupid sand, but it isn't anything that I can't handle," he answered. He asked how she was feeling and she responded that she felt about the same as he did.

She could feel his breathing start to slow and she knew he had fallen asleep. She was glad that he had chosen to fall asleep right here next to her. He had seemed worried about her since her little explosion at the villagers at Drum Island, and he seemed to be checking in on her. She didn't normally like having somebody worrying about her well being, but with him she didn't mind. She found it sweet even.

He was still warm from walking through the desert all day, and now that the temperatures were falling so drastically she was appreciative of his body heat keeping her warm. She didn't want to have to get back up and leave this position like she knew she would have to do eventually. She wanted to stay like this for awhile.

Trying to turn her thoughts away from Zoro she let her brain return to her conversation with Vivi from last night. She was glad that Vivi had politely called her out on how guarded she was, though it still hurt. She knew she was better than when she had first joined Luffy and everybody, but she now knew that she still had quite a ways to go. Now that she knew it was something the others saw and were hurt by she knew she needed to try harder and work on letting her walls down quicker.

Thinking about these things made her heart hurt. She wanted to belong with them and fit in, but that wouldn't happen fully until she was able to able to really be herself around them. Part of her knew she'd be accepted for who she was and that they probably even wanted for her to be completely herself, but another part of her struggled with that. She needed to shut out all of the doubting voices in her head.

The first thing she would have to do was to stop worrying that they were going to turn on her for being half fishman. It had been made clear to her that she wasn't seen as different from any of them, and she needed to be able to accept that. It shouldn't be so hard to accept that people, humans, could accept her and care for her. Even Nami, who had a very real reason for disliking fishmen, seemed to not care.

She wondered if Zoro felt pushed away too. He was the person she was the most comfortable with and the person she felt she could most be herself around. She had let her guard down enough to let herself fall in love with him. Even if she hadn't told him exactly how she felt surely he at least could see that she cared for him a lot. She hoped so at least.

It occurred to her that perhaps that was part of why he felt the need to check in on her. Him making sure that she was alright could very well be his way of making sure that she knew he was there for her. He had told her as much on Drum Island when had pulled her away from the villagers, and he was backing up what he had said. That realization made her happy.

"Okay people, let's get going! Time to move!" Nami shouted suddenly. She was met with a collective groan from everybody as they slowly all found their way back to their feet. The break had seemed so short, but it was probably wise to keep pushing through. Iris' feet ached as she stood back up and she suddenly felt cold since Zoro was no longer pressed against her keeping her warm. She felt a shiver run through her body as the cold penetrated her body.

Eventually the sun started to rise and the temperatures once again started to sky rocket. They were almost to their goal according to Vivi, and that meant the fight was just about upon them. Iris felt excitement and nervous energy start to course through her veins.

She wondered what kind of opponent Crocodile would be. He seemed to be a pretty big unknown right now other than that he was one of the Warlords. He would be strong, but what kind of abilities would he have? Would he possess a devil fruit ability? Would he use some sort of weapon? Would he be super strong physically? Hopefully his abilities would make themselves clear once they saw him.

As the city became visible on the horizon Nami asked Usopp if something was ready for her yet. It turns out he was making a weapon for her so that she'd be able to fight if she needed to. That seemed like a good idea; it seemed likely that in a fight of this scale that she would have to fight. Iris was glad to hear that Nami was prepared to be fighting, because that meant she realized that the others might not be able to watch over her the entire time to protect her. Nami was taking this seriously.

"Why are you making something as dangerous as a weapon for Nami, Usopp?! I'll be protecting her!" Sanji shouted.

"It's good for her to be able to fight on her own," Iris said.

"She shouldn't have to! Women shouldn't have to do something as vulgar as fighting! That's men's work," Sanji said. He realized as soon as the words left his mouth that he shouldn't have said that her her. He tried to say that what he meant was that only women who didn't want to fight or were scared to fight shouldn't have to fight.

"Being a woman is no excuse for not being able to protect yourself," Iris said through gritted teeth.

"She's right. If you're willing to be a pirate you should have known the dangers you were signing up for regardless of if you're a woman or man," Zoro interjected.

"Stay out of this you stupid moss head!" Sanji yelled, and the two looked as if they were ready to pounce as they glared at each other. It was like watching two feral cats that were ready to claw each others' eyes out. Iris put herself between them, put a hand on each of their chests and pushed them away from each other.

"Right now is not the time to be fighting, you idiots... Why not save that anger for Crocodile and Baroque Works?" Iris grumbled.

"He started it," they both shouted in unison.

"Keep it up and I'll be the one to end it," she threatened.

"Please stop fighting, everyone," Vivi said in a very polite tone.

Usopp started to talk about forming a plan while Sanji and Zoro turned their backs to each other. Usopp thought that they would have to be much more careful now that Baroque Works surely knew they were there, but that wasn't what Luffy had in mind. Luffy was ready to burst onto the scene and fight Crocodile.

Surprisingly enough Vivi actually agreed with Luffy. They were running short on time and they needed to do something quickly, or else they would be caught. Baroque Works was a large organization that probably had people all over the city looking for them. The chances of them being able to sneak around quietly without being spotted was slim to none.

Against Usopp's wishes they decided it would be best to walk into the city, find some food and water, and then head straight for the casino without bothering to disguise themselves. Iris was excited about getting some water. She was definitely dehydrated, and she was sure the others were in the same boat as her. Water would help them all feel much better and be ready for the fight ahead of them. Usopp and Luffy volunteered to go get the water, and surprisingly enough they were let to go get the water without supervision. She had a feeling they would bring back trouble, and sure enough she was proved correct shortly after they left from the group.

Usopp and Luffy came running back towards them frantically with marines in pursuit. She wasn't surprised in the least to see this, but they really didn't have the time to be dealing with marines right now. She could feel her anger rising, but knew she couldn't fight right now. They couldn't afford to waste time here.

She glanced around and noticed Chopper wasn't with them. He had something about needing to use a bathroom, but he wasn't back yet. If they stayed behind to find him they'd get sucked into a fight with the marines, and if they went looking for him it could take forever in a city as busy and large as this one was. He had a strong nose and would probably be able to sniff them out, but she was worried that he might think that they had abandoned him.

"Why are you leading them straight to us?!" Zoro shouted as he started running away from Luffy.

"Let's split up and meet at Rain Dinners!" Vivi shouted and pointed to the big casino that had a large golden crocodile on the top of it.

"Don't you lose your cool and do something stupid because of the marines, Iris!" Nami shouted as she ran off with Sanji following her.

Iris took off running despite the strong urge she felt to stay and fight. She saw the big smokey guy chase after Luffy and she hoped that Luffy would be okay. She really hated that guy, and he seemed to be quite strong. His ability seemed like it was one that Luffy hadn't figured out how to deal with either.

Suddenly Usopp ran past her as she was trying to make her way for the casino. He had thought it would be good to stick with somebody strong like her rather than run off on his own. He was most likely correct in thinking that; he wouldn't be able to do too much to save himself if caught by either the navy or Baroque Works.

There was a group of marines chasing them as Iris directed Usopp down an alleyway. He turned down the alley and she followed. The alley was small and the marines had file in going pairs of two rather than in one big group like how they had been chasing them.

Iris came to a halt while instructing Usopp to give her some of the water from the container he was carrying. He didn't think now was the time for her to take a water break, and tried to pull her along.

"Give me some of that damn water, Usopp!" she shouted as the marines continued running for them.

His legs were shaking as he saw the marines running towards them, but either he was more scared of her than he was the marines or he was curious what she was going to do because he opened up the water for her. She let water run over her hands and couldn't help the smirk that appeared on her lips. It felt amazing to have the water run over her parched skin after being in this dry environment. She quickly looked over the group of marines to get a quick count of them and found there was a dozen or so of them.

She could feel her blood pressure rising, but she kept telling herself that Nami had been right. She couldn't lose control here. She didn't have time for that right now, and it wouldn't be fair of her to make Usopp get caught up in her grudge against these people. He was counting on her to help make sure he got to Rain Dinners safely.

So instead of fighting them she decided that the best action to get them off her trail would be to do something that would stop them in their tracks. She flung the water off of her hands and fingertips like bullets. When she released this much water all at once she didn't have the greatest control of her aim, but in a small area like this she at least didn't have to worry about civilians being hurt by the stray water bullets.

She got her hands wet once more and repeated her attack. The marines seemed confused at how water had hurt them, and a good number of them were on the ground and out of commission from the attack. To be done in by an attack like this meant these people were weak and couldn't be too much stronger than the average civilian would be. She instructed Usopp to keep running, and then begrudgingly followed after him. She wanted nothing more than to stay behind and fight and give these people what they deserved, but instead she let Nami's words repeat in her mind to keep herself on track.

When Usopp and her made it to the front of the casino Nami and Zoro were already there, and she could hear Luffy running up. Sure enough he was still being chased by the marine with the devil fruit ability as he came running up. Luffy was shouting something directed at Crocodile as he ran straight into the casino, and they all followed him in.

They continued to run through the casino as Luffy called out to Crocodile at the top of his lungs. There was no way Crocodile would show himself in his casino in front of all of these people to some no name pirates like they were, but there really wasn't any point in telling Luffy that. He was going to do what he wanted to do, and right now what he wanted to do was fight Crocodile.

As they ran through the casino chased by the obnoxious marine a few security guards tried to stop the marine from continuing through the casino, and a few of them tried to stop them from running through as well. The security guards efforts were wasted though; neither the marine nor them were phased by them. If Crocodile wanted to stop them from rampaging through the casino he'd have to send out people stronger than this.

She started pushing away some of the people that came for them as they approached, but then strangely enough the security guards stopped chasing after them. Instead they were all pointed to an area that said V.I.P. It was obviously a trap, but it was the only lead they had to take them to Crocodile. Luffy continued running not even taking time to think about the possibility of it being a trap, and so they all followed him with the marine still in pursuit of them.

As they ran they came to a "T" in the hallway where they had to turn either left or right. There was a sign that said V.I.P. one way, and pirates the other way. It was surely a trap whichever way they chose, and Luffy chose to run to the pirate side. The turned and continued running, and then the floor suddenly opened up beneath their feet.

Curse words flew from her mouth as she reached out trying to find something to grab onto to stop her falling. Unfortunately there was nothing for her hands to find, and she fell through the floor into a cage beneath them.

She hit the concrete ground with a thump and saw that the others were all in the cage as well; including the marine. Her blood pressure rose drastically as she realized she was trapped in a small area with him. She wouldn't be able to control herself for very long being in such close proximity to him, and she could already feel the monstrous rage inside of her trying to come out.

Luffy was commenting on how clever the trap had been and complaining about feeling like he had no power, and the marine stood up starting to pull out the weapon he had on his back with his eyes locked on Luffy. Iris immediately put herself between the marine and her captain to shield Luffy.

"I wouldn't try anything if I were you," Iris growled.

"Is that a threat?" the marine asked snidely.

"I won't let you harm any of them, you piece of shit," she growled. She wasn't sure exactly how she'd stop him since she didn't know how she'd be able to damage a man made of smoke, but perhaps she could do something with water. Water might by effective against smoke particles; though she didn't exactly have a water supply at her disposal at the moment.

"I feel so weak in here..." Luffy complained. Iris didn't take her eyes off the marine as Luffy complained, but the marine's attention was on Luffy and not her. Him ignoring her pissed her off. Men always overlooked her thinking she wasn't worth fighting because she was a woman. She wouldn't let anybody think she was weaker than anyone else because she was a woman.

The marine went to move past her and swing his weapon at Luffy, but she stopped him. She put her hands up and grabbed onto the weapon pushing him back by pushing against the weapon. He was strong, much stronger than she would have thought a person made of smoke should be, but she was able to push back against him fine enough.

She did think his weapon was a strange choice though. It was a blunt metal rod with the handle of a sword, but no blade or anything to make it very dangerous. If he was fighting somebody with less fighting knowledge he could probably hurt them, but anybody with any experience shouldn't be hurt too badly by the weapon.

"This cage is like the ones used at headquarter prisons. It's made of a sea prism stone so that we can better manage ability users. It's a mysterious stone found in a certain sea that mimics the properties of the sea and completely negates devil fruit abilities. If it wasn't for that I'd be long gone from this cage and you lot would be dead," the marine grumbled.

"You bastard; stop looking down on us. If you think you could beat us that easily you're dead wrong," Iris growled feeling her blood boil. Not only was this guy an asshole, but he was overly arrogant as well. He thought he was so much better than them, but he was wrong. That arrogance of his was only furthering her anger and hate of him.

From the corner of her eye she could see Zoro starting to unsheathe his swords. She didn't need him to step in since the marine couldn't use his powers in the cage essentially turning him into a normal human. She could handle this guy on her own right now.

"Can't we all just get along?" a new voice said and they all turned their heads to see who the person was.

A chair spun so that she could see a large man with a scar that ran across the middle of his face and a big gold hook on one of his hands. The man, who she assumed to be Crocodile, had an extremely smug look on his face. He didn't seem surprised to see the marine with them and referred to the man as a stray hound.

Crocodile continued to explain that he had planned on killing off Smoker anyway and then brushing it off by saying it had happened in one of his many fights against the Straw Hats. Watching and listening to Crocodile she became even more pissed off than she already was. The overly arrogant air about him thoroughly disgusted her; she disliked Crocodile even more than the marine standing next to her.

She bit her tongue trying not to explode. She wanted to give this man a piece of her mind, but she knew her words wouldn't have any effect on that man. He already thought he was so much better and stronger than they were, and she was sure that he would just laugh at anything she had to say.

Luffy, on the other hand, didn't care if Crocodile listened to him or not. He started to shout threats about kicking his ass to Crocodile, but ended up being cut short when he grabbed onto the cage and lost all of his strength. She couldn't figure out why Luffy was still touching that stupid thing knowing it zapped away all of his power, and she was somewhat annoyed by how lightly he seemed to be taking this situation.

"How about we wait to continue this conversation until after the guest of honor comes to participate as well? My assistant is bringing her in as we speak," Crocodile said not listening to Luffy's complaining.

"Vivi was caught?" Nami asked quietly, obviously hoping it wasn't true.

"Even if she was we'll save her," Luffy said. He had that determined look in his eyes once more as he looked at Crocodile, though the seriousness faded away quickly enough. Luffy realized that nothing more would happen until Vivi got here, and that he couldn't break out of this cage and so he decided to pass the time doing impressions. His impression of Sanji was actually quite spot on and watching him made her less angry momentarily.

Nami didn't care for the impressions and thought they should be taking their situation more seriously while Zoro was asleep. Smoker was hanging out away from them, and the moment she laid eyes on him again anger flooded through her entire body once more. She would be surprised if her anger didn't force her to go past her snapping point.

"What's your problem?" Smoker grumbled at her.

"You," she growled.

"Don't worry. I won't kill you all until after we're out of this cage," he stated in a condescending tone. He said it as if it would be such an easy task for him to accomplish, and that it was already a sure thing. She wouldn't lie down and cave to this man. None of them would. She would fight back against him to the fullest extend of her abilities. He was severely underestimating them.

"You pompous asshole. You are the personification of the reason that I hate the navy!" she growled.

"You're a pirate. Of course you hate the navy," he stated.

"It's the navy's fault I became a pirate in the first place! My hate for the navy stems from long before I decided to become a pirate!" she shouted at him. Her heart was racing and felt like could burst out of her chest at any moment. The last time she had been this worked up was that about day four years ago when she found out her dad had been arrested and taken away from her. Looking at this man and hearing his arrogant voice infuriated her beyond reason. She was even more angry now than she had been back on Drum Island at the villagers who had hurt Chopper so badly.

Smoker was now looking at her rather than Crocodile. He apparently hadn't expected her to blame the navy for her decision to become a pirate; he probably hadn't heard that before from any pirate. Typically pirates hated the navy because the navy was always chasing after pirates and arresting and/or killing them. A typical pirate's hate of the navy more than likely didn't usually start before becoming a pirate.

She noticed now that her friends' eyes were on her too. Nami and Usopp looked nervous and worried. They were probably concerned that she was going to start a fight now in this cage and cause a problem. Luffy was watching her too, and he had a serious expression on his face. He didn't like it when any of his friends were upset and seemed to have a tendency to want to protect them from everything. Zoro's eyes were still shut, but one of his hands had moved to grab onto the sword letting her know he wasn't actually asleep. With everyone watching her she had to be extra careful not to lose control of her anger.

"Is it the navy's job to rip apart families? Families that are living happy, peaceful lives that aren't harming anybody?" she asked trying control her voice and not shout. "Because that's what you did to me. I was still a 17-year-old kid when you people ruined my little world. I'd still be back in Orange Town living a quiet little life helping my dad run his bar if you people hadn't ended that. It's your fault that I chose the path I did. It's your fault that I became a pirate," she said in a very controlled tone.

"If your dad was arrested that's not my problem. He must have deserved it," Smoker said and let his eyes fall back to Crocodile.

She couldn't hold her anger in any longer. She quickly moved in front of him and put her hands on the collar of his jacket and pulled him towards her so that he had to look her in the eye. She was snarling and showing off her teeth, and could feel her control over anger starting to snap.

"You don't know a damn thing about my dad! Don't you ever talk like you understand any of this! He had given up pirating more than a decade prior when he was arrested to raise me when my mom died! How is breaking apart a family a a righteous, justifiable thing to do? Get the hell off your high horse and see things through the eyes of somebody else for once!" she screamed.

"Iris..." she heard Nami's voice say quietly. She was tempted to tell Nami to shut up and stay out of this, but she knew she had no reason to snap at Nami. Nami had faced many hardships in her life too, and she understood the pain of losing a parent just as much as Iris did. That also meant that Nami should understand Iris' anger. Iris kept her jaw clenched shut as she looked into Smoker's eyes. The only thing she could see in his eyes was annoyance. He didn't want to be stuck in this cage with a bunch of pirates, and he could care less about her story.

He put his hands on hers and removed her hands from his jacket and looked away from her. She lifted her hand and slapped the man across the face. He didn't try to to move out of the way, and that should have been a fairly easy task for a man made of smoke. Even if they were in a cage that nullified his ability to break out of the cage he should be able to use his ability within the cage as long as he didn't touch the bars. He let her hit him.

"You're the other straw hat with a bounty. That means you're the fishman girl. I remember hearing that a fishman had been arrested in the East Blue a few years back. You should be glad your father went quietly and didn't say anything about having a daughter; the navy wouldn't have treated you very well being the daughter of a pirate," Smoker said. He still sounded annoyed and like he would really rather be doing anything other than talking to her, but it was almost as if he was trying to say something to make her feel better.

"I don't need your pity," she said and forced herself to turn her back to him. The thought to ask him if he knew where her father was passed through her mind, but she knew he wouldn't give up any information to her. All that would happen is that she would get even angrier, and he would know for certain she was looking for her father if he hadn't figured that out already.

Suddenly she found herself wishing that Sanji was with them. It was an absolutely strange thing for her feel, but it made sense when she thought about it. He was the only person she had confided in about the monster that lived inside of her, and she knew that he'd see she was about to snap. He'd try to reach out to her and calm her down. She never thought in a million years that she would want Sanji to comfort her about anything.

So instead to try and calm herself down she sat down next to Zoro and leaned her back against the thick bars of the cage. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath hoping to quiet the rage that was boiling over inside of her. She could hardly think straight she was so angry, and she needed to fix that.

She realized too that she had just shown a side to Crocodile that he didn't need to see. That man didn't need any more information on them to use against them, and now he knew a lot more about her. She was stupid for shouting like that where the enemy could easily hear her, but she couldn't help herself.

"Are you going to be alright?" Zoro asked her quietly.

She opened her eyes again and glanced towards him. His eyes were still shut, but his eyebrows were furrowed in a manner that showed concern. She mumbled that she'd be fine, but she wasn't sure that he believed her. If she couldn't convince herself that she was fine how could she convince somebody else?

She was about to shut her eyes once more to try and calm the monster inside of her, but was quickly distracted when Crocodile looked towards the large staircase leading to where they were and said something about welcoming Princess Vivi.

Had Vivi made it here on her own finaqlly? Iris turned to look and saw the woman who had appeared on the Going Merry that Vivi had said was Crocodile's partner standing there too. Iris couldn't read that woman at all, and that had her unnerved. She really couldn't stand not being able to read an opponent.

Vivi looked absolutely enraged as she stood and looked down the stairs to Crocodile. Crocodile said a few antagonizing words to Vivi, and Vivi went running down the stairs as fast as she could pulling out her little stringed weapons. The weapon made contact with Crocodile, but where it hit he turned to what looked like sand. That meant he had a devil fruit ability like Smoker's; his body was no longer made of flesh and bone but sand like Smoker's was of smoke.

Crocodile reappeared behind Vivi and threatened to kill her, but instead Vivi was tied to a chair. Crocodile's plan was now in effect. They were caught, Vivi was caught, and from the what Iris was able to piece together the war was starting. This wasn't the end, though. They would find a way out of this cage, and Vivi would stop the war while they stopped Baroque Works. There was no other option. It was go time, and their options were to either win this or die.


	26. Chapter 26

After telling them all his plans, carefully spelling out every detail Crocodile laughed. He really thought he was getting away with all of this scot free. If there was even a shred of doubt that he could be stopped he wouldn't have told them everything. Watching him give away all of his plans was like listening to the bad guy in all the fairy tales that were told to kids; bad guys loved to go on monologues and tell the poor victims how brilliant their plans were. He must not know how fairy tales ended though. The bad guys always lost.

He wasn't going to win, and his plans weren't infallible. He hadn't taken the Straw Hats into account when coming up with his plan, and they would be his downfall whether he realized yet it or not. All revealing his plans did was give them more fire and drive to take him down.

Crocodile's plans were running deep through this country though. He had spent years carefully perfecting the execution of his plan, and he thought it was fool proof. So far it had been, but then again he hadn't planned for the Straw Hat pirates to help this country and its princess out.

He might not think that they would be able to override his planning, but he was dead wrong. Vivi had become their friend, and there was no way in hell that Luffy would sit back and watch one of his friends suffer. He would make sure to do whatever he could to protect his precious friend.

Suddenly Vivi tipped her chair over and struggled trying to wiggle her way out of the room while still tied to the chair. Her eyes looked frantic. Iris could hardly stand seeing Vivi so upset. After the long talk they had the night they spent in Yuba she felt much closer to the princess. She considered Vivi a good friend now, and she wanted nothing more than to get out of this cage and help alleviate Vivi's fears. She wasn't strong enough to break out of the cage, though. All she could do was watch Vivi struggle, and that was an awful feeling.

Vivi continued to struggle, and thought if they made it out and headed straight to Alubarna that they could make it before the rebellion and stop this war. Crocodile laughed at her plan saying that he was headed there now to talk to Vivi's dad. There was a panic in Vivi's voice as she asked what Crocodile would want with her father. The answer was obvious, though. Crocodile wanted to rule over this country, and that meant the current kind needed to vacate his throne. He was going to kill Vivi's father.

"Who's more important to you, Miss Wednesday? Your father or your new friends?" Crocodile asked with a smirk as he held out a key. Was that the key to the cage they were locked in? There was no way he'd give them the key though, was there?

He laughed and threw the key onto the floor where a trap door opened up and dropped the key to a room below them. Crocodile informed them that the key was dropped down into the bananawani lair. Somehow none of them had noticed that the room they were was surrounded by water that had large crocodiles swimming in it. The crocodiles were enormous and had bananas on their heads. Luffy, being Luffy, thought the creatures were bananas with crocodiles growing out of them. His observation would have been humorous if it weren't for the dire situation they were in.

The expression on Vivi's face then turned from a frantic one to a horrified one. A bananawani had eaten the key that would unlock the cage they were in. Luffy thought Vivi should go get the key back, but she couldn't do that. The bananawani were ferocious creatures that even ate sea monsters. Vivi would have no way to deal with creatures like that. Iris would have no problem diving into the water and forcing the stupid creature to spit up the key, but since she was stuck in this damn cage their chances of getting the key back were slim to none.

"What are we going to do?!" Usopp cried out, and Crocodile laughed at Usopp's fear.

"This room will destroy itself within an hour. I have no more need for this secret base, and it will fill with water," Crocodile explained. He continued talking, but Iris didn't hear him any longer. They had to find a way out of this cage, and they had to do it quick. Iris would be fine with water filling the room, but she couldn't stand the thought of watching her friends drown. That would be too much for her to handle.

She could feel a panic rising up in her as she thought about being forced to watch these people that she cared so much about drown. She wasn't strong enough to watch something that; it would break her. She had become far too attached to these people to be able to come back from something like that. She had to find a way out of this mess before she fell into a full on panic attack.

"Oh, no the water has already started coming up!" Usopp shouted and pulled Iris out of her thoughts.

Luffy was shouting at Crocodile as Crocodile walked out of the room about how he would kill Crocodile, and water continued dumping into the room. Then one of the bananawani made its way into the room. It was enormous and there was no way Vivi would be able to take down the creature; it would surely kill her if she tried.

"Vivi get out of here! There's no way you can beat it!" Iris shouted at Vivi. Her words weren't said to demean the princess, but shouted out from concern. She had no doubt the bananawani would kill Vivi, and she couldn't stand to watch that happen. She could feel the raging monster that lived in her start to awaken.

As Vivi was looking on in horror at the situation the bananawani tried to attack her. She was barely able to dodge its giant mouth and teeth as they clamped down and crushed the base of the staircase, but she wasn't able to dodge it's swinging tail as it turned. She needed to get out of this room. She was going to die if she tried to take on the monster.

The bananawani stopped its attack when a ringing was heard. A transponder snail? It was coming from where Crocodile had walked off to. The bananawani was looking towards where Crocodile was, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity for Vivi to escape and go look for some help. Sanji and Chopper were still out in the city somewhere. They should be able to help.

She heard the voice on the phone echoing through the walkway Crocodile was in and recognized the voice; that voice belonged to Sanji. Did that mean that Sanji had been able to figure out where they were?

"Welcome to the shitty restaurant," Sanji's voice said.

"Sanji!" Luffy called out, but was quieted by Usopp and Nami. They didn't want Luffy saying too much because Crocodile didn't seem to realize there were more people in their crew than the five that were locked up in the cage. Crocodile had to be smart enough to be putting the pieces together though. Crocodile's reaction to Sanji's phone call didn't sound quite as shocked as he should have if he wasn't starting to figure things out.

Then as suddenly as their hopes were raised they were dashed. Somebody else got on the transponder snail and started asking what to do with the person they had caught. How could that idiot let himself be caught that easily? He really was useless.

As Iris tried to wrack her brain to find a solution she could feel her monstrous anger surging alongside a panic. There was no way that Vivi would be able to beat the bananawani, and she doubted that Crocodile would let Vivi out of this room to go and find help. If only Iris was strong enough to break out of this damn cage on her own. While she had spent a lot of the trip sailing towards Alabasta training, she had been training in the wrong area. She had spent a most of her time training her fishman karate knowing full well that they were entering a country that it wouldn't be of much use. She should have spent her time strengthening her body and working on techniques that would be useful on land.

Suddenly Vivi was trying to climb up the rubble of the destroyed staircase saying that she was going to go find some help, but like Iris had guessed Crocodile wasn't going to let that happen. Just as suddenly as Vivi had started climbing up she was back down on the floor unconscious near the cage they were still trapped in.

"Damn it..." Iris grumbled as she slammed her fists onto the cage. Vivi was unconscious, they were all stuck in the cage, and the bananawani was headed back towards Vivi. The others were yelling at Vivi for her to wake up while Iris continued to think about what she could do to get them out of this situation.

Vivi got up in time to just barely dodge the bananawani, and once again started climbing up the rubble to get out of the room. The bananawani went after Vivi again, and this time its tail smashed into a window and broke it allowing water to flood in exponentially quicker.

Vivi ran out after promising that she would be back with help, and they were left to wait. As the water flooded into the cage they were in Luffy started to collapse from the salt water touching his skin and zapping away his strength. The timeline on the room filling up with water had shrunk from the one hour they had initially been given, and the situation looked pretty grim. There had to be a way out. She couldn't give up yet.

Nami started hurling insults and yelling at the bananawani in hopes of getting it to bite down on the cage and break the cage, but it didn't work out that well. The bananawani bit down on the cage, but nothing happened. If the monstrous creature in front of them couldn't break into the cage how were they going to be able to break out? It really did seem like a key was their only option.

"Hey..." Smoker said from behind all of them.

They turned to see him sitting on the little bench and had his feet up as well so that the water wasn't touching him. He was awfully calm despite the situation they were in, and that really annoyed Iris. He shouldn't be calm in this situation seeing as there was nothing he could do to get himself out of the situation. She couldn't imagine the guy had resolved himself to die.

"How much do you know about Crocodile's targets? Or that woman with him? She's been on the run from the World Government for 20 years and has a bounty of more than 70 million berries. This won't just affect this country; it'll end up being the whole world if those two are teaming up," Smoker said.

"So what?! I'm going to kick his ass!" Luffy shouted.

"So how are you guys getting out of here then?" Smoker asked.

The water was now up to Iris' thighs and it was rising fast. It was high enough that she'd be able to duck down under it and try ramming the cage with her shoulder. She would have a lot better chance of doing damage to the cage using the abilities that came with being a fishman; she had a lot more raw strength when she was under water than she did on dry land.

Just as she was about to drop down under the water she heard a man's voice lecturing about having manners while eating. There was only one person who would talk like that, and that was Sanji. Vivi had found him! Now he just needed to find the key and let them out.

With one kick the creature went down, and Iris felt her hopes coming right back to life. Sanji should be able to find the key, right? The others were relieved to see him as well, though Zoro had to act annoyed at Sanji's late arrival. The bananawani were headed straight for Sanji now and starting to surround him.

"Get the third one that just entered the room," Smoker said from behind them.

"Why?" Luffy asked him.

"Are those ears on your head just for decoration? His growl is the same as the one that ate the key," Smoker stated sounding annoyed for having to explain that to Luffy.

Despite the amount of hate she had for Smoker even Iris had to admit that she was somewhat in awe of the fact that he had been able to pick that out. She would never have thought to listen that closely to the noises the creatures were making, and she wasn't sure that even if she had thought to listen if her ears would be able to discern the differences in their individual growls.

Sanji went for the third bananawani without hesitation and kicked it hard enough that it spit something up. It was a large white ball, but not the key. A voice was coming from inside the ball, and then it started to crack open. The face that came out of it was familiar, but definitely not a good familiar.

"What's that asshole doing here?" Iris groaned as she looked at Mr. 3 in front of them going on about how he was smarter than Crocodile and how there was no way Crocodile could defeat him. Iris didn't really care to know why he was here or how he had gotten inside of the bananawai, but she did know that if she got out of the cage she'd beat him senseless for what he put them through back on Little Garden.

She did notice, however, a key that was stuck to the wax ball that was now cracked in half. They all started shouting for the key, and Mr. 3 turned to see them. He seemed shocked to see them to say the least, and she knew there was no that he would willingly help them.

"This key? Here, have it!" Mr. 3 shouted in his annoying voice as he threw the key away from them. "Go find it!" he cackled.

Usopp, surprisingly enough, came up with a good idea. They could use Mr. 3's wax wax fruit powers to recreate a key. He might not willingly make a key, but Sanji could surely convince him with enough force.

"Beat the shit out of him, Sanji!" she shouted wishing she was out there so that she could wring the skinny little man's neck herself. She'd have to settle for watching Sanji beat the man within an inch of his life since she was still stuck in this stupid cage.

Watching Sanji beat the man into submission really wasn't as satisfying as it would have been for her to do it herself, though it was still nice to see the man get his butt kicked. The man's annoying cries made her want to deal with him herself even more; everything about that idiot was like running nails across a chalkboard.

Finally they were able to get out of that cage because of Mr. 3's ability. Vivi was frightened by the amount of bananawani around them still, but that was no big deal. If Sanji could deal with one with a single kick she knew that they'd be able to handle them easily. It was also convenient for her that they were in a room with water flooding in; she would have no problem fighting in an environment like this.

"I'm still pissed. I think I'll let off some steam with these things," she said as she started walking towards the bananawani letting her fingers run through the water that was now almost up to her hips.

When one of the creatures noticed her she decided that would be the first one she'd take down. She picked up her pace running towards it and swung her arm so that the water came off in a blade like manner like when she had fought the giant lizard in the desert. This time she didn't have to use her own sweat to execute the attack, and it was a lot more powerful due to the amount of water at her disposal. She felt some of the tension in her body release as her attack landed and did exactly what she had wanted it to do.

She fought with the bananawani one after another feeling completely in her element. She could feel adrenaline flooding through her body and her excitement soaring each time she took down another creature. She hadn't thought that she'd get to try out her move in such a wet environment in this desert country.

Finally there weren't any more creatures left to fight, and so she stopped. She was disappointed that the fight was already over, but she felt better after having gotten some of her aggression out. The fight wasn't over though; she knew there would be more foes to face once they left the casino and headed towards the palace. Baroque Works was still around, and so was the navy.

She turned back towards the others to notice that they were all looking at her. Sanji made a comment about how beautifully she fought, while Usopp said something about being amazed that she was able to move so freely in the water. They really hadn't had an opportunity to see her fight in a place where she felt so in her element, and so it was probably eye opening to see. They had seen bits and pieces of her fishman karate style, but nothing spectacular. Seeing them look impressed made her feel prideful.

"Fishmen don't feel resistance in water like humans do. If anything I can actually move much more freely in the water than on land. The only thing hindering my movements right now are these big, bulky, stupid harem pants that are absorbing all this water," she explained.

Before any more could be said Iris could hear a cracking noise. She looked around to see that the wall near the tunnel that the bananawani had come through was cracking and looked like it was going to give way at any moment. They all started making their way towards the exit, but the tunnel ended up collapsing and water came bursting into the room.

Iris' first instinct was to go after Luffy who couldn't swim and then threw him over her shoulder as she swam. She then started looking around to see if anybody else needed help getting to the surface. She saw Nami and Vivi struggling to pull Usopp as they swam, and so she went and relived them of him.

"Here, let me take him," she said and the two gladly let her take Usopp from them. Even knowing that she was a fishman the both seemed a little startled to hear her talking to them. Even though Nami had spent many years around a large group of fishmen, she probably hadn't had to interact with them underwater much. Still, it shouldn't be too surprising to her that Iris could do things like talk underwater without any problem.

After handing off Usopp to her they continued swimming towards the surface. She glanced around quickly once more to see if anybody was struggling, but didn't see any signs of it and she swam to the surface quickly. Luffy and Usopp were both unconscious and definitely taking in water. They needed to be brought up to the fresh air before they took in too much water into their lungs.

She got to the surface before the others and put both Luffy and Usopp up on the dry ground. She wasn't sure why Usopp was unconscious, but figured that some piece of rubble must have hit him or something. Or perhaps he scared himself so badly that he fell unconscious. If the others didn't surface soon she'd have to back down to make sure everyone was alright, but she didn't want to leave an unconscious Luffy and Usopp out her unguarded though with all of the marines running around. There was always a chance that Crocodile or one of his cronies could show up too.

She didn't have to go back down though; the others all ended surfacing before she was able to become too worried about them. The only surprising thing she saw was that Zoro brought Smoker up with him. That man deserved to die down in that room.

"What the hell, Zoro?!" Iris asked trying not to yell at him.

"I didn't want to; captain's orders. I would have left him to die too," he responded.

Iris was tempted to shove the man straight back into the water to let him drown, but made herself abstain from doing so. She knew if she did that Luffy would be mad at her. She couldn't figure out why he would want to save a human as repulsive as Smoker was, but there had to be some reason. That was what she told herself to force herself not to make a move she might end up regretting.

Turns out she wasn't the only one wondering why Luffy had ordered Zoro to save Smoker. Smoker was confused as well, and wanted an answer. Luffy was still unconscious though, and so they didn't have an answer for him.

"So you don't mind if I complete the duties of my job here, then?" Smoker asked and the air around them all became negative and heavy. There was no way they would let him lay a finger on Luffy, and right here having all this beautiful water she shouldn't have a problem fighting a devil fruit ability holder; not even one as strong as Smoker seemed to be.

Before their interaction could further escalate a large group of people could be heard running towards them. Marines were running for them, and now Luffy finally had regained consciousness and was trying to pick a fight with Smoker. Had his reason for saving Smoker been so that he could fight him? She wasn't sure that she'd be able to get on board with saving the man for that reason. It seems like it would have been better to let him drown in that room below them.

"Go," Smoker said. The look in his eyes was slightly softer, and that threw Iris off a bit. Had it actually meant something to him that they had saved him? He didn't really seem like the kind of man that would care about stuff like that though. And it didn't change the hate she held for him.

"Just this once I'll let you go because I don't want to be indebted to a pirate. Next time we meet you're a dead man, Straw Hat Luffy," Smoker said. Smoker's voice had what almost sounded like a curiosity in it now. Was Luffy making him reconsider whether all pirates were pure evil or not? Or was he curious to see what they were doing in Alabasta and why helping the princess? It had to look strange to have the princess of Alabasta willing hanging around and even fighting for them in the eyes of a marine.

Iris wasn't crazy about turning her back to the marine and running away, but even with all the hate she held towards him she knew it was the smart thing to do whether she wanted to admit that or not. They had to beat Crocodile to to stop the rebellion. She tried to push back the anger that was caused by merely looking at Smoker and started running after the others.

"You know... I don't hate you after all," she heard Luffy say with a laugh from behind her, and then he was running towards them. The marines stopped chasing after them, and they continued running towards the edge of town following Vivi. Hopefully Chopper caught up with them as they ran; Nami was spraying her perfume to lay a trail for him and his sensitive nose.

She didn't have to worry about him for long though; he appeared on a giant crab creature running towards them from the desert with Eyebrows riding along as well. The creature was giant and looked more than big enough for all of them to ride on him. Apparently Eyebrows was friends with the crab and was able to talk it into giving all of them a ride to their destination. This seemed like a much more preferable way to travel through the desert!

She climbed onto the top of the crab to where Chopper was, and sat down along with the others. This would greatly cut down on their travel time and should ensure that they reach the capital before Crocodile. Chopper being able to talk with animals and arrange something like this was a huge benefit to them.

Her thinking that things would be smooth sailing didn't last long though; Crocodile became involved almost instantly after the crab had started its way towards the palace. She watched as Vivi was suddenly pulled off the crab by a big golden hook and a trail of sand behind it that led to Crocodile. She called out to Vivi and was about to jump off the crab to give chase, but she wasn't quick enough.

Luffy's arms stretched past her, and he grabbed onto the hook to switch places with Vivi and then threw Vivi back to them in a split second. Crocodile seemed like too big of an unknown at this point, and not somebody that any of them should be fighting alone. There was also the woman with him that had a ridiculously high bounty. She was also a big unknown to them, and she gave Iris a bad vibe.

"Go! Take Vivi to the palace! I can handle this by myself!" Luffy shouted as he was being dragged back to Crocodile.

"That idiot," Zoro said through a clenched jaw.

"We can't leave him by himself! I'll stay behind with him!" Iris said as she was about to jump off the crab once more, but was stopped by somebody grabbing onto her wrist. She turned to see Zoro holding her back and instructing Chopper to have the crab keep moving. Iris would have thought that Zoro would have been the first to stay with Luffy, but instead he was the one telling them to push on.

"Luffy! We can't leave him behind!" Vivi frantically shouted.

"We have to keep you safe. If you die this country is done for. It doesn't matter if any of us die as long as we can protect you," Zoro said. Vivi obviously didn't like Zoro's words, but she didn't argue back with him. He had a somber look in his eyes, and it was obvious that he had wanted to stay back with Luffy more than any of them.

He had let go of her wrist and was now sitting on the side of the crab that faced where Luffy was even though they couldn't see him any longer. She sat down next to him and leaned into him. Every muscle in his body was insanely tense; he was really struggling to stay with them.

"It's Luffy. He won't be beat by somebody like Crocodile," she said trying to reassure him.

"I know," he responded, but his voice didn't do much to hide his concerns.

She wanted to say something that would ease his fears, but couldn't think of anything to say. She was worried about Luffy as well and really didn't want to leave him behind by himself, and so she wasn't sure how to convince Zoro that Luffy would 100% be fine. He was taking on one of the Warlords; Crocodile was definitely the strongest foe that Luffy had ever taken on.

She continued to lean her side against him since he didn't seem to mind. With as fast as they were moving on the sand crab's back it was as if a strong breeze was rushing by them and the desert heat wasn't even noticeable. There was no way she could have sat to where she was leaning up against Zoro yesterday without being completely miserable. The breeze alleviating the desert heat was welcome.

"Was that move you were using earlier a new one?" he finally asked breaking the silence as they watched the horizon.

"Yeah. It's pretty good, eh? I figured if I could shoot water from my fingers like bullets that I could get water to mimic other weapons as well," she responded. She told him about how she had come up with the idea while learning to wield a sword from him, and that she had been practicing as they traveled to Alabasta from Drum Island. As she talked she could feel some of the tension in his body start to fade. She was glad that she could help him.

She was also glad that he seemed impressed with her new ability. It made her feel pretty good about herself that he had noticed. He was so strong, and so she was doing something right to have him approving of her move. She had been glad that Sanji had noticed her ability when she first used it, but he would be impressed with anything that she did.

Once she was done talking about her new move and silence fell once again she could feel the tension returning to him. She had been able to distract him momentarily, but unfortunately not for long. She knew he didn't want to be comforted, but that didn't stop her from wishing that she could do so.

If something happened to Luffy their group would fall apart. He was the glue that held all of them, as wildly different as they all were from each other, together. They had all acknowledged his goal of becoming the Pirate King, and they all fought to help him achieve that goal. Sure they all had their own goals individually, but they all wanted to see Luffy become the Pirate King.

If Crocodile won this fight with Luffy they wouldn't all have that shared goal, and quite frankly she didn't think that they'd be able to put their individual goals on the back burner for each other. There was something special about Luffy that made people want to help him see through his goal. Even she, who still knew that she had to save her dad, had come to want to make sure that she helped Luffy become the Pirate King to the fullest extent of her ability as well.

That didn't mean she would put her goal of looking for information about her dad's whereabouts aside so that she could rescue him along the way, but it was no longer her only goal. She knew the others felt the same way about their own goals. Even Zoro, who she knew had said he would leave if this ever got in the way of becoming the world's best swordsman, wouldn't leave Luffy's side before seeing Luffy become the Pirate King.

If Luffy lost here and didn't come back to them she figured they'd probably try to stay together for awhile, but would end up splitting into groups or going their own ways individually. She could see Nami wanting to continue working on making a map of the world, and Sanji following her. She'd need protection, and Sanji would feel that he could offer it. He could look for the All Blue too as Nami made her maps.

She figured Usopp would end up heading back to the East Blue and going back to Kaya's side, and maybe Chopper would go with him or maybe he'd go back to Drum Island. Usopp and Chopper seemed to get along pretty good though, and she could see them wanting to stick together.

Zoro seemed like he'd probably continue along his journey of becoming the best swordsman. He'd surely make a name for himself regardless of what happened to the rest of them. She thought that she'd like to see him reach his goal, and after travelling with friends he'd probably have a hard time going back to travelling by himself. Not to mention he'd surely get lost. She'd more than likely end up parting ways with the others to go along with him and search for her father. Zoro could continue training his body as she looked for information about her dad. And while she was no navigator she could help him not get completely lost all the time.

Even if she ended up all alone she'd continue looking for where her dad was; she had to find him regardless of whatever situation arose in her life. And she didn't think she could go back home now that she had a bounty on her head. She wasn't sure she'd want to anyway. Honestly, she'd have a hard time settling back down into life on such a boring little island. Now that she had gotten a taste of what the world can offer as far as different landscapes and cultures she wanted to see more. Every place they had visited was vastly different from the island before. It was all so fascinating.

Her thoughts turned from her current situation to her dad. Once she had found and rescued her dad she didn't know what would happen after that. She had already figured out that she couldn't go back home, and he couldn't either. After being broken out of prison they'd surely check Orange Town immediately. He might be able to go to Fishman Island though; she had heard the navy rarely went there because of how difficult it was for humans to get there.

Initially she had thought that she'd find him, and go back to living a quiet life with her dad. She knew that wouldn't be an option now. Part of her longed to go back to the type of lifestyle she had lived 4 years ago before he had been arrested, but she knew that it wouldn't be so simple now. She didn't think she'd be able to settle down before seeing the rest of what these oceans had to offer. And she wouldn't be able to leave her friends or Luffy until she had seen them reach their goals. The course she had thought her life would take was slowly changing.

That wasn't something she needed to think about right now though. She needed to focus her attention on the fight in front of her so that when Luffy returned to them everything was taken care of and the war had been prevented. There was no point on dwelling on what could happen if Luffy didn't come back because he would surely come back. She needed to have more faith in him than that. He would definitely come back to them safe and sound.

"Man, I could sure use a drink right now," she groaned breaking the silence that had come upon them.

"Ugh. Me too," he responded.

"When this is all over I'm headed straight to a wherever I can get something strong to drink," she said. She could see him nodding in agreement from the corner of her eye. Hopefully this country had some decent booze in it. Zoro and the others would probably be fine with whatever was offered to them, but she was a bit pickier. She had learned so much about alcohol while working in her dad's bar for all those years, and she had an appreciation for good quality alcohol. Strong and smooth whiskey was always her favorite.

"What are you two complaining about?" she could hear Nami ask from behind them. She knew the question was directed at them without even having to turn towards Nami and look. So much for getting to enjoy sitting with Zoro without being interrupted.

"Just that I'm not intoxicated enough to be enjoying myself," Iris quipped as she looked back towards the others. She glanced back in time to see Nami rolling her eyes at Iris' remark, and noticed that Sanji was glaring daggers into the back of Zoro's head.

Sanji mumbled something about how Zoro shouldn't be burdening Iris with his worrying about Luffy, and Zoro immediately became angry. They started arguing and Iris sighed. She knew both of them were on edge from leaving Luffy behind, but they didn't need to be fighting between themselves. It was wasted energy.

Nami smacked the both of them over the head, and the fighting stopped. Iris was glad that Nami stepped in so that she didn't have to. Everybody was at wit's end and feeling nervous. Not knowing what was happening between Crocodile and Luffy's fight was somewhat horrifying. They all had faith in their captain, but this situation would be difficult even for Luffy.

Zoro and Sanji stopped their fighting, and Usopp went back to telling his wild stories to Chopper. Chopper was the only one that seemed to believe Usopp's stories, and so Usopp ate the attention straight up. Nami and Vivi were talking, and Iris was feeling restless. She needed something to distract her mind and keep her body busy.

Iris decided to pass the time and to relieve stress by doing some stretching. They were making good time towards the palace, but they still had some distance to go before they reached their destination. The crab was definitely helping though; they weren't having to exert their own energy by walking, and would make it there sooner than they had anticipated.

Before she knew it enough time had passed that they were now approaching the Sandora River. Apparently the crab didn't like water and couldn't swim. The river was wide and it would be difficult if not impossible for the others to swim to the other side. She could cross the river fine enough and even take the others across the river, but she couldn't take them all at once without something to pull them on like a raft.

The other thing about this river was that it was fresh water. She could swim in it the same as she swam in the ocean, but she couldn't breath in it. She remembered Vivi saying that ocean water mixed with it when they had docked their boat at the mouth of the river, but the salinity wouldn't be high enough for her be able to use her gills. It was a slighty uncomfortable feeling for her to be immersed in water that she couldn't breath in, but she'd get over that.

She heard something about the crab liking dancing girls and noticed the crab's eyes turning towards them. The look in his eyes when he saw Nami, and herself in the dancing girl clothes Sanji had picked out for them was very similar to the look Sanji had when he was ogling a woman. Luckily for vivi she was still wearing the robe to protect herself from the sun, while Nami and Iris weren't and left themselves open to perverted looks.

The crab started moving faster and once again Iris hated these stupid clothes. Even a crab could see that they looked like sleazy dancers. The crab continued increasing his speed and started to run across the surface of the water, and everyone became excited about the crab being able to carry them across the river after all.

Unfortunately the excitement died down rather quickly as the crab started sinking into the river. She grabbed onto Chopper since he couldn't swim and jumped into the river before the crab had sunk completely.

Her body hit the cold water and she could hear the splashes of the others hitting the water too. The crab was now doing his best to make his way back to the shore where they had come from, and her friends were treading the water. She was thinking about who she'd have to get to the shore first, and figured that she should take Chopper, Nami, and Vivi first. The boys would be fine swimming back to shore to wait for her as she carried the girls and Chopper over first.

"How long is it to reach the other shore?" Iris asked.

"About 50 km," Vivi responded.

"We can't swim that far!" Usopp whined.

"You idiot. I can swim that easily," Iris said.

"You can, but we can't! We aren't all fishmen like you!" Usopp continued whining.

She looked at him with one eyebrow raised. She was surprised that the coward of the group hadn't already thought to have her ferry them across on his own. She was going to have to spell it out to him apparently.

"I'll take Nami, Vivi, and Chopper to the other side first, then I'll come back for you three. One you grab onto my waist, and the other one can gab onto her," Iris instructed. Chopper had already climbed onto her shoulders, and he'd be fine there. She told the boys to swim back to the shore they had just come from and that she'd be back as quickly as she could.

She figured it would take her a half an hour or so to get the girls and Chopper to the other side, and then about a half an hour to get back to the boys. It should take total about an hour and half, maybe a bit longer, to get everybody across the river. She wished that she could do it quicker, but 50 km wasn't a short distance.

After Nami and grabbed onto Iris' waist and Vivi had grabbed onto Nami, Iris started to swim. She didn't get very far before she could feel something large swimming towards the surface. She looked back in time to see a giant catfish looking creature emerge from the water. Vivi shouted out whatever the creature was called and shouted for everyone to swim away because the creature loved to eat humans.

Iris took Chopper off of her shoulders and handed him to Nami while swimming back towards the catfish. He might be a threat to humans out in open water like this, but he wouldn't be too much of a threat to her. She could sense some other creatures moving in the water towards them, but she'd have to deal with that next. This stupid catfish was the most immediate threat.

She swam under the giant creature making sure not to breath in any of the water and kicked it as hard as she could using fishman karate. The thing buckled where it had been kicked, and she swam back to the surface. She was going to make sure it was knocked out, but she didn't have to. While she had been attacking from the underside there were Kung Fu Dugongs attacking from above. The catfish hadn't stood a chance against her alone, and now she was being helped by a bunch of creatures that considered Luffy to be their teacher. What a strange turn of events.

According to Chopper the Kung Fu Dugongs were offering to pull all of them to the other side of the river on the catfish. This would definitely save them time, and so everybody other than her climbed on top. Even if she couldn't swim as comfortably in this river as in the ocean, it still felt nice to swim. She'd be able to keep up with the pace that the dugongs were pulling the others at without a problem.

"Shouldn't you be saving your energy?" Nami shouted as she looked down from the catfish.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine," she called back. The only hindrance she had right now was the stupid harem pants that were taking in water, but even with the pants taking in water and weighing her down a bit it was still refreshing to be swimming. She didn't have expend too much energy to swim at this pace, and her body and mind would feel refreshed by the time they got to the shore. She wished that she could submerge herself completely and take a deep breath of the cool water, but this still beat walking out in the desert any day,

"The Kung Fu Dugongs want to know how you can swim so well," Chopper translated as they swam.

"I'm half fishman," she said. It was obvious they didn't know what a fishman was, and so she tried to explain it as best as she could. She hadn't really thought about how to explain a fishman to somebody that hadn't met one before. Even when she had tried to explain it to her friends who hadn't known what one was she didn't really end up having to. All she had explained was that she was half fishman and half human, and told them about how she could breath in water, practice fishman karate, and showed her fish-like traits. They had met Arlong and the other fishmen soon enough after that anyway, and so they were able to see them firsthand.

She ended up explaining it as people that had evolved to live in the ocean. They had taken on aquatic species traits, and were able to enjoy life both above the surface and under the surface of the ocean. The dugongs seemed to accept her answer, but were still curious about her. The ones that weren't busy pulling the catfish along played with her as they swam; she played tag with them and even showed them how she was able to create currents and small whirlpools.

They finally reached the other side of the river after what Iris guessed to be about an hour. It was quicker than if she had had to take everybody to the other side herself. They said goodbye to the dugongs, and once again were having to travel through the desert. Vivi wasn't sure if they'd be able to make it in time, but they had to try. They should be plenty rested after getting to ride on the sand crab and being pulled across the river by the dugongs.

"The makeup washed off," Nami pointed out as she pointed at the freshly exposed tattoo on Iris' chest.

"Oh well. I don't think there's any point to hiding out identities any longer," Iris replied.

Their destination was finally within reach, and now it was just a matter of getting there in time. It was do or die now; if they didn't make it in time many lives would be lost. They had no choice but to hurry as fast as they could through the desert and reach the palace before the rebels did. It was time to get going.


	27. Chapter 27

The group started their long walk towards the palace, but didn't get too far before help arrived. Karoo had found some other ducks and brought them to help. There were seven total ducks, and so enough for each of them. According to Vivi these ducks were the fastest creatures in Alabasta, and with their help they should be able to make it to the palace in no time. They were also all very cute; Iris liked the giant ducks.

They already knew Baroque Works would be waiting for them at the palace, and so now the only real problem was how they were going to sneak Vivi in. A plan was came up with for the six of them to ride up to the city covering themselves with the cloaks they used to protect their skin from the sun in the desert so that Baroque Works wouldn't be able to figure out who was who, and then have Vivi wait until they had drawn Baroque Works' attention. Once they had Baroque Works' attention on them Vivi could try and find a way to stop the rebellion.

"Well, that seems like a pretty solid plan," Iris said agreeing with the plan that was laid out before her. Nami and Zoro would split off together, Sanji and Chopper would split off in another direction, while Usopp and her would split off into yet another direction. They weren't sure how many employees of Baroque Works were in the city, and the only one hey had any knowledge of was Mr. 2. The other officers were still unknowns to them.

They agreed to meet up once everything was taken care of, and with that they pulled the hoods of their cloaks over their heads, and climbed onto the ducks. She glanced over to Usopp and when their eyes met he nodded his head. He looked petrified, but he was trying his best not to show it. He wanted to be brave like the rest of them were.

She nodded her head back at him, and with that they were off. The group of six ducks ran off leaving Vivi and Karoo hiding behind some rocks, and they went straight for the palace. The ducks were definitely fast, and they were making amazing time. They had also caught Baroque Works' attention, and some of the members were waiting at the base of the city for them.

What looked like a baseball came flying towards them, and the ducks all instinctively dodged it. The baseball exploded as it hit the ground, and Iris was glad the ducks had realized not to go near it. Her and Usopp split off from the others and made their way towards one of the gates to get up into the city.

The ducks made their way quickly up the stairs and Mr. 2 was the one that gave chase to them. When she felt the ducks had run far enough into the city to have pulled Mr. 2 away from the other groups she had the duck stop and she jumped off. The duck Usopp was riding also stopped and he got off.

"I can handle him on my own if you're too scared," Iris said noticing Usopp's quivering legs. Well, she couldn't actually see his legs under the cloak but the vibrating of the cloak gave it away pretty plainly.

"I'm not s-s-scared! I am Captain Usopp, a b-b-brave warrior of the sea!" he said in a shaky voice.

"Okay, well the let's get this over with brave warrior of the sea," she said as she threw off the cloak. Usopp threw his off as well, and Mr. 2 looked disappointed to see them rather than Vivi standing in front of him. He started spouting off something about okama power and how he was going to defeat them quickly. She cut him off before he could get too far into his obnoxious ranting.

"Oh, but I thought we were friends? Isn't that what you were saying when you left our ship?" she asked in a sarcastic tone as she fastened her hair up into a ponytail with the hair tie she had around her wrist. She hadn't liked him before and she still didn't, but Luffy and Usopp had seemed to like this person when he had been on their ship for a few minutes on their way to Alabasta.

"That was before I knew you were Mr. 0's enemy. If I had known that I would have dealt with you all then," Mr. 2 answered.

"Fair enough... I suppose. Though you wouldn't have stood even half a change against all of us back then. I hope you can give some sort of fight, because I'll be disappointed if all you can do is transform into other people's images," she said, and once again he started spouting off about okama power. She really didn't care if this guy was an okama, she didn't like people judging fishmen and so she tried not to judge others for superficial reasons, but she couldn't stand this guy. His voice was annoying, the way he dressed was annoying, and that stupid grin of his was annoying.

She didn't care to listen to him droning on, and started her attack. She was met blow for blow by him, and he was strong. He countered her punches and her kicks, and prevented her from getting a good enough grip on him to throw him down to pin him. He wasn't getting through her defenses either, but being on the defensive like this made it hard to attack. This guys was much stronger, and faster than she had anticipated him being.

As she fought she tried to think of a good way to incorporate the fishman karate she knew since he probably wouldn't be expecting that, but in an environment this dry and hot there really wasn't enough moisture to do much. If she could land a solid blow on him she could try to screw up the water levels in his body, but she wasn't being given an opportunity to do so. She had to find a an opening and land one good hit.

This was a technique that hadn't gotten a lot of practice, and so it wasn't something she used often. Her dad had taught her the move, but there hadn't been many opportunities for her to practice it on actual people. He had taught her the movement and the mental images to use in practice to get it right, but it was hard to translate mental practice into an actual fight.

Initially after being taught the move she had tried to try it out on pirates that had come through the bar when they made nasty comments about her dad, but her dad scolded her for doing so. Using moves like that would give away that she was a fishman, and he still thought she needed to not be so aggressive towards others. He wanted her to help prove to the world that fishmen weren't just monsters. She had known herself better than to think she would stop fighting, but she did respect her dad enough to stop using the fishman karate so that she wouldn't expose her heritage.

Now it was known that she was a fishman, and she supposed there really was no point in hiding it. It was on her wanted poster that she was a fishman, and it had been in the newspaper when her bounty poster came out. She could now move, and fight, freely. She knew there would always be discrimination about her race, but embracing her fishman side could really help her fighting abilities.

She could feel herself becoming winded as the fight continued on. He was definitely stronger than she had pictured him being with his skinny little arms and legs. His fighting style was strange, too. He spun around and moved like a dancer would, and had somehow managed to turn it into a functioning and effective fighting style. She was starting to see some patterns in his movements though.

She was growing impatient with this fight, and decided to put more effort into going on the offensive since she was noticing patterns in his fighting style. That turned out to be the wrong route to take, because once she let up on her defense he landed a strong kick right to her rib cage that surely broke a few ribs.

She had gotten a punch in that landed on his right shoulder as he kicked her, and while his shoulder was likely dislocated she had now sustained damage that would effect her breathing the longer the fight went on. If she took another blow to the ribs she'd be in a bad way.

She tried not to react to the pain, and went back to a more defensive fighting style. She hated fighting like this. She shouldn't be struggling to fight this man. He was not somebody that she felt she should be having a difficult time against.

Suddenly the man lurched towards Usopp and tried to attack him instead. She grabbed onto the back of Mr. 2's clothing as he moved past her, but as she did so he removed what looked like his mascara coated eyelashes and hurled them towards Usopp. He called them a boomerang, and so assumed that meant they'd be returning to him to continue his attack on her.

"You don't have time to be taking your attention off of me," she growled as she gripped tightly onto his clothes, pivoted her weight to her back food, spun the opposite direction, and threw him over her shoulder and onto the ground.

He hit the ground with a thud, but it wasn't enough force to keep him down. He made his way back to his feet with a surprised look on his face. The fact that he didn't seem to be taking her or this fight seriously was really starting to her off. She could, and would beat him. Her anger was now fueling her movements and she attacked with a new ferocity.

He seemed surprised that she was attacking harder and faster, and she seemed to be gaining the upper hand. She was landing blows at a higher rate than he was, and with as angry as she was she wasn't hardly feeling it when he did land a punch or a kick on her. She'd probably feel it later, but in the moment she wasn't.

"Why do you fight so hard? Your captain is dead now," Mr. 2 said trying to throw her off, and it worked. She paused long enough for him to land a punch square on her jaw. Her teeth were slammed together and she felt a couple of teeth break. This pain wasn't one she was able to ignore, but she tried as pain shot through her jaw and broken teeth.

"You're lying," she said after pulling the broken teeth from her mouth. She tried not to wince and show much it hurt, but pulling broken teeth out that were still rooted into her jaw hurt. It hurt more than she wanted to admit. Thankfully with her having shark teeth the replacement teeth showed up shortly after removing the old broken teeth.

"How rude! I don't lie," Mr. 2 said in an indignant tone.

"Well, then your information was wrong. Luffy won't die," she said trying to remain calm. Luffy couldn't possibly die, right? He was going to win. She couldn't doubt him now; she shouldn't even entertain the thought that he might lose here on this desert island.

"Luffy won't die until he becomes the Pirate King! You're absolutely wrong!" Usopp shouted from behind her.

"Pirate King?!" Mr. 2 laughed. "There's no way he'll be pirate king when he's dead! I really do need to hurry this up so that I can execute that pretty little princess though," he continued as he took some ridiculous looking ballet pose.

"Don't you dare laugh at Luffy's dream!" Usopp yelled from behind her. He sounded thoroughly enraged at this point, and she could hear him walking towards her. She was proud of him for taking a stand, and was curious to see what all he would do. On the rare occasion he decided to ignore his fears she saw the makings of the brave warrior of the sea that he was always talking about becoming. It was a refreshing sight to see.

Usopp pulled out his slingshot and shouted out as he shot one of his homemade bullets at Mr. 2. It was one of the ones he called "Tabasco Star" and it hit Mr. 2 right between his eyes. The fact that Mr. 2 didn't try to dodge at all meant that he didn't find Usopp a threat, but he was going to regret his decision momentarily.

The Tabasco exploded and spread over Mr. 2's face, and into his eyes. He screamed out in pain and Iris decided to use that as an opportunity to attack. She lunged towards him while closing her eyes to help herself focus. She pictured all of the water in his body and pictured it all being thrown out of him as she slammed the open palm of her hand into his chest.

She reopened her eyes and saw Mr. 2 fall to the ground. He had stopped trying to rub the Tabasco out of his eyes and looked unconscious. His makeup was now all smudged, and he looked dried out with having the water in his body and organs being shoved out of him.

"What did you do to him?" Usopp asked looking on in shock.

"I pushed all of the water in his body out of him," she said not taking her eyes off of Mr. 2. She didn't trust that he wouldn't get back up yet. Sure his transformation ability was a useful ability in Crocodile's plan, but to climb all the way up the ranks to #2 had to mean he was strong. She didn't know if he had been using his full strength on her either. If he was stronger than what she had already seen he'd get back up eventually.

She made sure to thank Usopp for creating that opportunity for her to attack, and he beamed at the compliment. He started going off about how great and wonderful he was, and she half listened to him. She decided she should make it so that he couldn't get back up, but he started to stir before she started to attack again.

She immediately jumped onto him and pinned him down so that he wouldn't be able to get up. His eyes opened, and when he realized that he was pinned down tried to try something different than his okama kenpo or whatever it was he had called it. His new plan was to start transforming into other people.

The first person he transformed into was Luffy. Did he really think that would work on her? Even if he looked like Luffy and sounded like Luffy he wasn't Luffy. Only an idiot would fall for something like that. Sure, if she hadn't watched him transform and if he was wearing clothes like Luffy it could fool anybody, but when she had watched him transform it was ridiculous to think she'd fall for that trick.

When he saw that transforming into Luffy didn't have any effect on her he tried the others. He transformed into Nami, Usopp, Zoro, and even into her. He was struggling under her, but she wasn't going to loosen her grip on him.

"You're so heartless! You don't care about your friends at all!" he whined.

"Stealing my friends' faces doesn't make you my friend. Your cheap imitations of my friends is pathetic," she retorted.

"How dare you! My transformations aren't cheap! You pirates will never beat Mr. 0! Your captain is dead, and shortly you all will be too!" he shouted as he continued to struggle under her.

"Shut up. I can't stand listening to your stupid voice any longer," she growled. She thought briefly about sinking her teeth into his neck and snapping his spine in half, but the thought of his blood in her mouth was utterly repulsive. It would be the quickest way to deal with this idiot, but she didn't think she'd be able to force herself to do so.

Instead she headbutted her forehead straight onto his and jammed her knee into his crotch. That big puffy whatever it was he was wearing probably took some of the impact away, but not enough. His eyes rolled back into his head and she knew he was out cold now.

"He's tougher than he looks," she said as she stood back up. If hadn't have been for Usopp creating that opening with his Tobasco Star created she would probably still be fighting. She really was grateful to him for creating an opportunity for her.

She looked at Mr. 2's unconscious body and slammed her open palm into it once more to remove any water that might be remaining in his body out; she was pretty sure that she broke a bunch of his ribs with the force of the impact too. There was no physical response from him, and so she knew he shouldn't be getting back up anytime soon. She was tempted to finish him off and guarantee that he wouldn't be getting back up, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. He was down for the count and with the injuries she had given him he'd be easy to deal with even if he got back up.

Iris could hears sounds emitting through the city that informed her the war had started. She could hear clashing echoing off the buildings and through the alleyways. Did that mean Vivi hadn't been able to stop the rebellion in time? Or did her childhood friend carry so much resentment towards the king that he wouldn't listen to Vivi? Whatever the case was they needed to find Vivi and see how they could help her.

Iris started walking towards what appeared to be the center of the city as it was where all of the noise was coming from. Usopp followed along after her trying to cover his fear by boasting of the great battle that he had just won. His voice was shaking, but he followed her anyway.

As she picked up her pace towards the center of the city she wondered how the others were doing. Her ribs and jaw felt like they were on fire as she ran, but she needed to ignore the pain for awhile longer. She couldn't let these injuries distract her from what was going on around her.

The noises of the city were getting louder, and she thought she could hear some commotion above and beyond the fighting going on at what appeared to be the palace. She wasn't sure what it was, and so sprinted towards the palace.

She could hear somebody calling her name as she ran and turned her head back enough to see Sanji and Chopper running up behind them. That must mean they won their fight too. They both looked fairly beat up, but if they had won that was all that really mattered. Not that she had really thought those two would lose; both of them were strong.

"Why are you all bruised up? And your jaw is swollen? Usopp, why did you let this happen to her?!" Sanji shouted when he got close enough to see the state she was in. She was hoping it wasn't that obvious that she was taken some hits in her fight, but seeing how beat up both him and Chopper looked made her feel somewhat better about her own injuries.

"Don't get mad at him, Sanji. He actually created an opening that allowed me to end the fight. He helped me out big time," she said.

"She's right! If it wasn't for my stellar shooting abilities and my Tobasco Star we'd probably still be fighting!" Usopp inserted.

"You let her get hurt and you look like you didn't do a damn thing!" Sanji growled at Usopp.

"Let's keep our focus on the mission at hand," Iris said trying not to let herself get too angry at Sanji.

"Iris is right. Let's keep going to the palace to find Vivi," Chopper chimed in.

The closer they got to the palace the more fighting there was going on around them. There were what appeared to be soldiers fighting normal looking citizens that she assumed where the rebels. The war had started, and so she wondered what had or hadn't happened since they had all separated in the city.

She could clearly see the palace now, and saw what appeared to be Crocodile at the top of it. She was far enough back from the palace that she couldn't be sure, but the large silhouette sure looked like him. If he was here, then where was Luffy?

"CROCODILE!" she suddenly heard a very familiar voice yell from above them, and she didn't have to wonder long about where Luffy was. She couldn't stop the huge grin that was spreading across her face as she saw that Luffy was alright. Of course Crocodile wouldn't be able to kill Luffy!

He was riding a large bird, and she was curious about that, but none of that really mattered. She was just so glad to see him, and to see him looking completely fine. The bird he was on dove towards what she now could see was a person falling towards the ground from the top of the palace. She saw a glimpse of blue hair and realized it was Vivi. Talk about perfect timing; Luffy showed up just in time to catch Vivi and save her from crashing in to the ground.

Usopp and Chopper were as equally thrilled to see Luffy as she was, and they made it known. Usopp had been so shaken up by Mr. 2 saying that Luffy was dead, and while he had denied that it was even a possibility, he was still worried that it might have been true. He had tears of joy running down his face as he looked at their captain.

Luffy's eyes were locked onto Crocodile, and he was going to continue their fight from before. She wasn't sure why their fight had been interrupted in the desert before, but it would end now. Luffy would beat the shit out of Crocodile; she confident of that.

"Hey Vivi, why are you all banged up?! I knew I should have gone with you when we split up!" Sanji shouted, and they all looked to her. She was definitely beat up. Her clothes were ripped, she had bruises and cuts all over her, and her pretty blue hair was a mess.

Before Vivi could answer as to why she was all banged up Iris could hear Nami's voice from behind her. Nami was yelling at Usopp about the weapon he had made her and how she almost died because all it did were party tricks. She turned just in time to see Nami whack Usopp over the head with the metal rod and knocked him down to the ground. Nami had caused more damage to the kid than he had seen the entire time they had been in this country.

She could hear Sanji and Zoro arguing about why Nami was injured. Sanji finally had somebody he could blame for one of the women being hurt. He had tried to blame Usopp for injuries, but he had to realize that Iris was the dominant fighter in the pair up of the two. And as far as Vivi's injuries went there really wasn't anybody to blame in their group.

"Sorry I lost to that guy once. It won't happen again," Luffy said in a determined voice that interrupted their different conversations. Their attentions were all on him now.

His eyes were still locked onto Crocodile. There was a quiet rage in his eyes that _almost_ made her feel sorry for Crocodile. The amount of resolve he felt was tangible, and she knew they could all feel it. Crocodile wouldn't even know what had hit him.

"I'll finish it now. All of it," Luffy said and used his gum gum abilities to send himself flying up to the top of the palace. They all seemed to have a weight lifted off of their shoulders with Luffy being there, and even in the middle of this warring country there was a more pleasant air around them. Vivi was crying now, and for whatever strange reason Iris' first instinct was to reach out and hug the girl.

Vivi hugged Iris back, and Iris wasn't sure what to do now. She wasn't exactly a huggy type of person, and she wasn't great at comforting others. Something inside of her had just felt this was the right thing to do. Vivi's tears were falling onto Iris' shoulder now, and the girl's body was quivering. She was still trying to carry more than her petite little frame was capable of.

"What's the next step of action, princess?" Iris asked. She was hit with a twinge of guilt for calling Vivi princess when Vivi had repeatedly asked Iris to call her Vivi rather than princess, but it had already come out of her mouth. She didn't mean it as a way to keep a separation from Vivi this time, though.

"Thank you," Vivi said as she stepped back from Iris to look at the group not seeming to have noticed that Iris had referred to her as princess. Vivi then explained the current situation. There had been Baroque Works' employees that had infiltrated both the rebellion and the royal army, and so the war had started despite her and Kohza trying to stop it.

There was a bigger problem than that, though. There was a cannon planted somewhere in the city and a shooter that would ignite the bomb in the cannon in 10 short minutes. This bomb would wipe out the royal city, and they needed to stop it. That was barely any time to scrounge the entire city, find a shooter, and prevent the bomb from going off. They didn't have any other choice, though.

As Vivi explained the situation some Baroque Works' employees were sneaking up behind her, obviously still trying to take her head and get a promotion within the company. These idiots didn't realize that their boss didn't care about them and was going to let them die in the explosion along with everybody else in this city, and it was almost sad.

Iris, who was standing closest to Vivi, swung her arm out over Vivi's shoulder and grabbed onto his hands that were holding a sword that he was swinging towards Vivi in order to stop his movements. She pushed back on his hands to force him back a few steps, and swung her foot up and kicked him with her heel right in the ribs. The man went flying to the side where he crashed through the wall of a building.

They were now surrounded by Crocodile's lowly little minions. Zoro and Sanji were ready to fight too, though they looked to be in worse shape than she was. Zoro was bleeding all over, and while Sanji wasn't bleeding as heavily he looked like he had taken some hard blows too.

"You go with Vivi. Make sure nothing happens to her," Sanji said as he stepped in front of her.

"I've got this," Zoro said also stepping in front of her.

"You two sure you won't collapse trying to fight? You guys look pretty awful," she said in an annoyed tone. She didn't like being told what to do, but she figured they were probably right. Chopper could probably fight to protect the others, but Nami and Usopp weren't big fighters. It would be best to send her with them in case they ran into more people from Baroque Works.

"I'm fine," they both said in unison.

"Whatever. If anything happens to either of you I'll kick your asses," she said before turning to run with the others to look for the bomb.

They ended up splitting into groups, and she went with Vivi while Usopp and Nami went with Chopper. The falcon that Luffy had come riding into the city on was flying above them, and she found out that the falcon was a a human with a devil fruit ability like Chopper's that could allow himself to transform. He was therepresentation of one of the guardian deities of the country, and had known Vivi since she was a small child.

He was giving them an aerial view of the city and helping them look for the shooter and/or the place where the cannon was in, but unfortunately he wasn't finding anything. Iris was fighting off Baroque Works members as they tried to kill Vivi, and trying to keep Vivi free from distractions so that she could freely look for where the shooter was.

Unfortunately time was running out quickly. The ten minutes had turned into five, and they still hadn't found anything. The situation honestly seemed pretty hopeless, but Vivi kept running along not letting her doubts get to her.

As they ran Vivi tripped over something and fell to the ground. She scraped up her skin further, and she looked like the furthest thing from what one typically thought a princess should look like. To Iris, she looked much better than the princesses from fairy tales that were all prim and proper, and perfect all of the time. Vivi looked like a real, and relatable person that would do absolutely anything in her power to save her country.

"I've got it!" Vivi shouted as she grabbed onto Iris's outreached hand, and Iris pulled her back up to her feet. At that moment Usopp was running past them with Baroque Works running after him. Iris grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards them in a way that she was able switch places with him. Usopp could listen to where Vivi thought the the bomb was while she fought off these idiots.

She jumped in front of the Baroque Works employee while dodging his weapon and punched him in the gut. The people chasing after them now were weak, and easy to deal with even with large numbers of them. She wasn't quite sure how they thought they could successfully take Vivi's head with their low level of strength. Perhaps if Vivi was by herself, but with everybody protecting her it would take somebody much stronger than the people in front of her.

As she was fighting off people she noticed something shoot straight up into the sky where Usopp and Vivi were standing. He was signalling the others that they had figured out where the cannon was, and for them to come. Unfortunately that also meant that he had signaled to Baroque Works of their location.

"You two go ahead! I'll stay back to greet all of the people that show up from the signal," she said without taking her eyes off the enemies in front of her. Vivi told her they were headed for the clock tower and that if the others showed up here then she could direct them the right way.

"Got it," she shouted over her shoulder as she grinned at the Baroque Works employees that were coming for her. Well, they were actually coming for Vivi, but she wouldn't let them get past her.

As people came to the location where the signal had been shot off she swiftly dealt with them. These people weren't strong in any sense. They were wildly swinging around weapons and even shooting guns, but compared to the some of the other people she had fought since entering the Grand Line these people were nothing.

She saw one person wielding a sword and decided to take the sword for herself. She kicked her foot up and hit the hilt of the sword hard enough that it popped out of the man's hand, grabbed onto the sword, and used the hilt to hit the man in the temple and knock him down.

Now that she knew a little about swords she felt she could actually swing it around a bit and not look like a complete amateur who didn't know what she was doing. She used the sword mostly as a defensive tool to block other swords and weapons rather than dodging them, but did slash at her enemies with the sword a few times as well.

As she continued taking down the weak Baroque Works members she saw a some blonde hair that she recognized coming her way. She shouted at him that everybody was at the clock tower, and after she turned down his offer for help he ran past to go find Vivi and Nami.

When she was sure no more enemies coming after them she ran straight for the clock tower. It had to be just about time for the cannon to be shot off, and she wondered if the others had made it to where they needed to be.

She made it where the others were right in time to see Usopp, with Chopper on him, and Vivi on Chopper flying up from the ground. She asked what was going on and got quick explanation from Nami that it had to do with her weather rod after yelling at Sanji who was partially up the clock tower to do what he needed to do.

She wasn't sure she knew how a weather rod could make Usopp take off flying like that, but that didn't really matter at the moment. She watched as Chopper pushed off of Usopp with Vivi on his back and jumped up to where Sanji was, and Sanji kicked them up higher.

Usopp started to fall back towards them, and she wasn't going to just let him hit the ground; he wouldn't have the grace or know how of how to land and not injure himself. She positioned herself so that she could catch him, and then did so. He thanked her and she helped him get to his feet.

Sanji also landed on the ground, but he was able to land on his feet just fine while avoiding injury. She looked back up to in time to see Zoro jump from the building while holding two of his swords out for Chopper to land on.

There were strange looking people that were standing at the top of the clock tower with the cannon pointed out towards the city, and they shot some bullets towards Zoro, Chopper, and Vivi. Zoro sent them flying up in perfect timing, but the bullets continued for him and ended up exploding on him.

His body fell and he was making no efforts to correct his stance so that he could land without further hurting his body. She called out his name and ran as fast as she could up to the clock tower. She used her momentum to run up the side of the clock tower, and then pushed herself off from the side to meet him as he fell, and to catch him.

Her feet hit the ground, and she tried to take the impact in a way that only her body felt it. She didn't think she could probably completely erase the impact for him, especially with the shape he was in, but she thought she took most of it.

"Thanks... But what about the cannon?" Zoro asked, and she was amazed that he was still conscious with the amount of blood he had lost, and then throwing that explosion on top of it all. He pulled away from her and stood on his own feet trying to show that he was fine.

She knew he wasn't as okay as he wanted her to believe, but she didn't argue. They had bigger problems than him being stubborn about being alright. She wasn't sure how to answer his question though, and she looked back up towards where Vivi should be, and all she saw were two more falling bodies. These must be the two shooters who were in the tower to set off the cannon. Vivi hadn't come out yet, and there weren't any cries of victory coming from the clock tower. Was there a problem?

"The bomb is on a timer! It's still going to go off unless it is disabled!" Vivi shouted from the clock tower loud enough for them to hear her.

A timer? Crocodile had already thought ahead to somebody being able to stop the cannon from being lit? She could feel her heart starting to race as she realized what this meant; if that bomb went off now they would all be dead. There wouldn't be enough time for them to run out of the city; especially not with the injuries they had.

However, before she was able to fully process the situation the palace guard who could transform into a falcon appeared at the ledge where Vivi was. There was a few moments where nothing seemed to be going on, and then she watched in awe as the falcon started to fly towards the sky with the bomb being held in his talons.

While she knew that only a few seconds had passed it felt like an eternity as she watched the scene unfold before her. The falcon flew straight up, and she could hear Vivi screaming the man's name. This man had put saving Vivi and the country above his own life, and while he made the decision to save the most lives possible Vivi would greatly mourn the loss of this one person.

The timer on the bomb expired, and the bomb exploded with a magnificent force. She could feel the force pushing back on her as she shielded her eyes from the flash. There was also the intense heat that came along with the bomb exploding. This sensation was unlike anything she had felt before. It was amazing and terrifying at the same time. The fact that so much destructive power could be contained within that one device was quite horrifying.

She had thought the explosion would have stopped the fighting, but she was wrong. If they had been distracted even momentarily by it you wouldn't realize it now from listening to what was going on around them. She could still hear the clanking of swords clashing, the screams of the people fighting, and guns firing off.

Vivi couldn't handle what was going on around her at that moment. She had just lost a person she cared a great deal about, and the country that she loved more than her own life was still fighting. She started to scream as loud as she could from the clock tower for everybody to stop fighting. Her voice sounded broken, and they were all shaken by the raw emotion in her voice.

"Go! Stop the fighting!" Nami started yelling at them in response to Vivi's pleas.

"What are we supposed to do?" Zoro asked.

"I don't know. Figure something out! We need to help!" Nami yelled.

The only thing Iris could think to do was to start knocking people unconscious. It probably wasn't the best way to handle things, but it seemed the quickest way to deal with the problem at hand. People who were unconscious couldn't fight with each other after all.

Iris ran towards where the fighting was, and started hitting and kicking onto pressure points in both the rebellion and royal army to knock them out. The people were so engrossed in their battle that they didn't even seem to see her coming at them.

As she was fighting her way through the crowds doing what she could to help she could feel a rumbling in the ground. No sooner had she felt the rumbling she saw something come bursting through the ground and go flying into the air. She immediately recognized the person as Crocodile and let out a triumphant shout. Luffy had won!

It was if the very skies themselves were celebrating Crocodile's defeat; rain started coming down from the sky. The people fighting all became distracted by the rain, and the ones that were near where Crocodile's body had landed back down on the ground seemed too confused to fight. Why was the hero of their land beat up and unconscious on the ground?

As the fighting ceased Iris could once again hear Vivi's voice as she continued to call for the fighting to stop. The people of the country could hear her too, and their response to her seemed to be one of surprise. Since Vivi hadn't made it know that she as back in the country people were shocked to see her.

Her being back in the country didn't seem to do much to distract for long from how upset they were. Both sides felt wronged by the other, and wanted feel that justice had been served. Iris could hear somebody from back at the palace yelling for the royal army to put down their weapons, but that wouldn't do anything to stop the rebels from attacking. They seemed to be a more unstable group than the army anyway, and so something would need to happen to stop them from attacking.

"Everybody, put down your weapons!" a voice sternly commanded from behind where Iris was. Iris turned to see a dead man standing there. The man that had been blown up back at Whiskey Peak was now standing in front of them with a solemn look on his face. He looked perfectly fine now, and was carrying a small kid in his arms. She blinked a few times to make sure that she was actually seeing what she thought she was seeing.

"Can you talk, kid?" the man with the powdered wig hair asked.

"Yeah..." the kid said and went on to explain some of the events that had happened earlier in the day, and what had actually happened. Apparently the "king," who happened to be Mr. 2 and his army, had attacked this kid and caused some big problems.

The rebels seemed shocked to hear what the kid was saying, and seemed hesitant to believe him. Was it because the person holding the kid was somebody that worked for the king? She wondered if they thought powdered wig guy had forced the child to say what he was saying.

Then somebody stepped up that they would all listen to and respect. Kohza, the leader or the rebellion and Vivi's childhood friend, was confirming everything the child had said and explained that Crocodile had been their real enemy.

What happened from here on out really was none of their business now. Iris didn't doubt that this country would pick up the pieces and start to rebuild, but it wouldn't be easy or quick. She figured that as long as Vivi was here things would work out well enough, though. Vivi's unconditional love of this country and her willingness to do whatever was needed of her, regardless of whether it was a task fit for a princess or not, would make sure this country worked towards being a whole country again.

She started walking away from the crowd of people and caught up with her friends. Now that everything was settling down they needed to go find Luffy. He may have taken some injuries during the fight that would need to be addressed.

It didn't take long to find Luffy though; a man was carrying Luffy on his back. The man turned out to be Vivi's father, the king. The king didn't look to be in great shape, but Luffy looked worse. Luffy had won the fight, but you wouldn't know by looking at him. There wasn't hardly a spot on his body where he wasn't bleeding or bruised.

As they were taking Luffy from the king Vivi caught up to them. She was glad to see that they were all still breathing, especially Luffy, and that her dad was safe and sound. They needed to go address the situation with the rebels and the army, and so they went to go do that after telling the pirate group to go rest and seek medical attention at the palace.

"It's over finally," Iris said as she rested her back against a building. Her body suddenly felt very heavy as the pain from her injuries and broken ribs set in. The others' exhaustion and injuries seemed to be sinking as well. Zoro was sitting on the ground already asleep, Luffy was also passed out lying on the ground, while Sanji, Chopper, and Nami collapsed onto the ground.

She closed her eyes as well and felt her knees giving in as her back slid down the wall she was resting on. The cool rain that was falling was refreshing as it hit her skin, and it made her feel more relaxed. She knew this rain would lull her to sleep if she didn't get up, but she didn't want to get up. After all the stress she had been under in this country, and with the injuries she had sustained while fighting Mr. 2 she wanted to sleep.

That should be fine, though. The country was going to be safe. Things had worked out as well as anybody could have predicted, and their job was done in this country. It would be fine if she napped for awhile.


End file.
